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j-a-TOaijyJ Ci5-;' 



THE LIFE 



aEORaE M. TROUP. 



BY 



EDWARD J. HARDEN. 




SAVANNAH: 

E. J, rURSE, No. G WIIITAKER STREET. 
MDCCCLFX. 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, by 

EDWARD J. HARDEN, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States 

for the Southern District of Georgia, A. D. ISoO. 



T 11 O M A S U . F O R MAN, K s q , 



D K . IJ. H . F>. T E GUI* 



® b t s Mo r Iv 



IS KESPKCTi'ULLY UECICATED, 



PEEFACE. 

The biography of G-eorge M. Troup is submitted to the pub- 
lic, in the hope that it will be useful, and that its defects will be 
indulgently considered. Undertaken at the request of friends, 
whose opinions are worthy of regard, the work has grown to pro- 
portions not at first foreseen ; and much of the labor has arisen 
from the difficulty of deciding what portions of a mass of mate- 
rials, could, with least injury, be omitted. Taking into view the 
length of time Grovernor Troup was before the public, and the 
important measures in which he acted, this difficulty is easily 
seen. 

Little merit is claimed for the work, beyond the labor of a 
compilation. Governor Troup is generally permitted to speak 
for himself: few speak so well; none more truthfully. It is 
possible, undue prominence has been given to some portions of 
his history ; but it is hoped no important part of his public life 
has been omitted. His private correspondence must have been 
extensive ; and, without doubt, much of it has been irrecoverably 
lost. Some of his letters, written in the privacy of friendship, 
are, for the first time, published ; and they contribute no little to 
the interest of his biography. This interest would have been 
increased by tne publication of other private letters — especially 
those relating to agriculture, in which their author felt deep 
concern ; b.ut this was forbidden by the prescribed limits of this 
volume. 

To preserve connection iu the history, and present its facts in 
their order, documents have been interwoven in the body of the 
work ; and they constitute its principal value. With a view to 
bring the volume into suitable compass, and a desire not to 
give matters merely political too great preference, some of the 
documents have been put in an Appendix in small type. 

It is scarcely necessary to state that the book has been printed 
wholly in Savannah ; or to express the hope that it will be found 
as free from typographical errors as books usually are. Even in 
printed copies of the same document, disagreements have been 
found ; thus adding greatly to the labor of determining the true 



VI. PREFACE. 

reading. An abbreviated designation has been used to distinguish 
original notes. 

The fac-simile of" Governor Troup's signature, which accom- 
panies the engraved likeness, is taken from a letter written in 
1811. Some years later, and down to the period of his death, he 
usually, if not uniformly, employed only the initial letters of his 
given name. 

To the many friends who have generously aided in the ^v■ork, this 
occasion is taken to return sincere thanks ; but these are especially 
due to Major W. J. McIntosh, Hon. John C. Nicoll, I. K. 
Tefft, Esq., Dr. W. C. Daniell, J. Hamilton Couper, Esq., 
Col. James Hunter, G. B. Gumming, Esq., Thomas M. For- 
MAN, Esq., H[on. Joseph Henry Lumpkin, Governor Brown, 
R. B. Hilton, Esq., Iverscn L. Harris, Esq., Dr. John G. 
Slappey, Stephen F. Miller, W. S. Daniell and John S. 
Bryan, Esquires. The work itself will show a part of the in- 
debtedness to Major McIntosh, Dr. Daniell, Mr. Couper and 
Judge Lumpkin ; Dr.' Daniell having (besides other favors,) 
furnished about a hundred letters to himself from Governor Troup 
extending from 1825 to 1856 ; some of which will be found in 
succeeding pages. The earlier letters from Governor Troup, were 
furuislied by Mr. Teept, whose assistance has been otherwise 
invaluable, and from whom, as well as Judge Nicoll, important 
information has been derived. To Mr. Hilton, acknowledg- 
ments are due, for full files of the Georgia Jouri^al from 1823 to 
1827 ; to Gen. G. P. Harrison and Henry Williams, Esq., 
for valuable documents ; to J. II. Sneed, Esq., for access to the 
files of the Savannah Republican ; and to The Georgia Histori- 
cal Society, for the free use of its library and papers. 

Savannah, 21st October, 1859. 



19o' WH:f ' f ''"f ? !;"'"■ "'" "■"' '"'• '° '""''' ^"^-^ typographical errors. On page 
ttio top, for " yourself," read " vourselves." 



the top, for "yourself," read "yourgelves.' 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CaAPTiir. I. Birth — Parentage — lii.s Boyhood — Academic, Collegiate and Legal Education — 
Service in the Legislature — Marriage— Death of liis tirst wife, <£c.; Ac 1 — 13. 

Chapter II. Earlj' Career as a iniblic man — Election to Congresr — rolitical delations — Traits 
of Character 1! — 21. 

Chapter III. State of the Country— Foreign Rciations— Meeting of Congress in 1SU7— Em- 
bargo — Mr. Troup's Speeches — Letter to Jlr. Ilarrif:, and to (!ov. Mitchell — Army Eill— 
Onnhoat System 22 — i7. 

Chapter TV. Yazoo Fraud — Its history — Claims growing vnt of it, before Congress — Speech 
of Mr. Randolph— Mr. Troup's Course and Speeches on that subject— Settlement of 
Claims 4S— S4. 

Chaptkr Y. lle-eiection to Congress— Mr. Madison's Presidential term— State of Foreign 
Uelatioa.s — Preparations for War — 3Ir. Troup's Speeches and Letters— Non-intercourse — 
Kank of the United States Ru— 101. 

Chapter YI. P.e-eloction to CougTess, in ISIO— Congress Convened hy the Piesident— Threat- 
ening posture of Foreign Relations — Mr. Troup advocates strong measures — Letters to Gov. 
Mitcliell — Speeches on Enlistment and the Militia — Declaration of var — Speeches on En- 
listmorit of minors, and on Army Bill — Defences of the Country lOo — 132 

Chapter YIl. PiC-election to Congress, in 1S12 — Appointed Chairman of Military Committee 
in the House— Progress of the War— Speeches on war measure.'-— Capture of Washington 
City — Enlistment and Conscription — Letter to Gen . Mitchell — Battle of Kew Orleans — 
Close of the war— IMilitary Peace Estahlishment— Mr. Trenp'.s llc-tiremcnt from Congress, 
&c K)3— 15S. 

Chapter YIII. Election to V. S. Senate, over Dr. Bibb — C'c.urso in that Body— African Slave 
Trade '"Concert" — Mr. Troup's Speeches thereon — Resignation — State of Parties in Georgia 
—William EC. Crawford— Gov. Clark— Col. Troup o, candidate for Governor— Defeated in 
1819, and again in 1821 — Elected Governor in 1823, by the Legislature — Internal Improve- 
ment— Land Lottery 159—19:.'.. 

Chapter IX. Beginning of Ir.dian Difficulties— Cherokee Controversy— Correspondence on 
that subject — Federal Relations — Slavery Agitation by Ohio Legislature — First Annual Bles- 
sage of Gov. Tror.p — Election of Governor given to the People — Commissioners appointed 
ti) treat with the Creeks — Governor reqdcsted to receive LuFayette, .U-.. Ac lO-t — 253 

Chapter X. Treaty concluded with the Creel'- Indians — Disturbances growing out of it- 
Precautions of the Governor — Murder uf Mcintosh and others — Governor's Reception of 
LaFayettc — Extra Session of the Legislature — Governor's Message — Recommendations — 
A'iews on Slavery Question — Governor Troup, Judge Berrien and Mr. Wirt — Proceedings of 
the Legislature — Major Andrews and General Gaines at MilledgeviUe — Governor's corxefi- 
pondence with them and the Government at Washington, begun, &c.— Case of the Indian 
Agent 254—333 



VIII. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Chapter XI. Ciuivas.s for Govcnior, in 1S25— Gov. Troup and Geu. Clark rival caudidates— 
Political Excitement— Indian Difliculties continued— Gen. Gaines and Major Andrews- 
Governor forbids intercourse with them— Complains to the President, and demands arrest 
and trial of Gen. Gaines— U. S. Government objects to survey of Creek lands, &c. Ac- 
Acrimony of Gubernatorial contest— Governor Troup elected by the People— Meeting of 
Legislature— Annual Message of 1825— Proceedings of Legislature, Ac, &c 334:— 424. 

Chapter, XII. New treaty concluded at Washington, with the Creek Indians- Difficulties, 
debates and correspondence growing out of it— More trouble with the Cherokee s— Position 
and firmness of Governor Troui) an<l the Georgia Delegation— Letter to Dr. Daniell— Gov. 
pronounces a eulogiuni (ui .IritVr.-oii and Adams— Dinner at Indian Springs— Survey of land 
ceded by the oil Treaty— Tlueatcncd Interruption of the Surveyors— Meeting of the Legisla- 
ture—Governor's Message— Legislative action— Events of 1827— Threatening posture of 
Indian question— Settlement of it, &c., .tr- 425—493. 

Cii.iPTER XIII. llotiremcnt of Gov. Troup from the Executive Chair— His last Annual Mes- 
sage-Declines a public Entertainment at Millcdgeville, and a public Dinner at Savannah- 
Election to the U. S. Senate, in 1828— Course in Congress— Political opinions, &c.— His 
Resignation, and final retirement from public life 494 — 519. 

CnAPTER XIY. Gov. Troup in retirement — Nominated, by State Ptights men, for the Presidency 
— Political opinions, and views on various subjects — State sovereignty — United States Ban^i 
and Independent Treasury — Course in Presidential contest of 1840 — Is opposed to admission 
of California, and " Compromise" measures of 1850 — Elected a Delegate to the Nashville Con- 
vention — Nominated for the Presidency, by Southern Eights Convention in Alabama — 
Political and private correspondence — Decline in health ; last sickness, and Death — Public 
testimonials to his wortii — Summary of his character — Conclusion 520^536. 

AppExmx. Letter to Major Howard, on State interposition and sovereignty— Letter to Major 
Moore on amendments of Constitution, &c.— Letter on sub-Treasury— Letters to a gentle- 
man in Mobile, on California question, &c. — Letters to Dr. Slappey on same question, &c. 



LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. 



CHAPTER I. 

Birth, Parentage, Education, and First Ajyjjearance in Piihlic 
Life. 

By the Charter of the Province, the boundaries of Georgia 
inchided all that territory " which lies from the most 
northern part of a stream, or river there, commonly called 
the Savannah, all along the seacoast to the southward, to 
the southern stream of a certain other great water or river, 
called the Alatamaha, and westwardly from the heads of 
the said rivers respectively, in direct lines to the South seas ; 
and all that share, circuit and precinct of land, within the 
said boundaries, with the islands on the sea, lying opposite 
to the eastern coast of the said lands, within twenty leagues 
of the same, which are not inhabited already, or settled by 
any authority derived from the Crown of Great Britain," &c. 

By a royal proclamation, dated the seventh day of Octo- 
ber, 1763, " all the lands lying between the rivers Alata- 
maha and St. Mary's," were added to the province of 
Georgia. 

It is hardly necessary to remark that the term " South 
seas " * conveyed no definite idea of the western boundary 
of the province, or that the claim under that description 
never extended, practically, to the west of the Mississippi 
river. Accordingly, we find that, by the fourth article of 
the Treaty between the United States and Spain, dated the 
27th October, 1795, " it is likewise agreed that the western 
boundary of the United States which separates them from 
the Spanish colony of Louisiana, is in the middle of the 

* The Pacific Ocean was originally called the Soutli Sea.— Ed. 



2 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. I. 

channel or bed of the river Mississippi, from the northern 
boundary of the said States to the completion of the thirty- 
first degree of latitude north of the equator." And by the 
Constitution of the State of Georgia, adopted the 30th day 
of May, 1798, the boundaries of the State were set out as 
follows : " that is to say, the limits, boundaries, jurisdiction 
and authority, of the State of Georgia, do and did, and of 
right ought to extend from the sea, or the mouth of the 
river Savannah, along the northern branch or stream 
thereof, to the fork or confluence of the rivers now called 
Tugalo and Keowee, and from thence along the most 
northern branch or stream of the said river Tugalo, till it 
intersects the northern boundary line of South Carolina, if 
the said branch or stream of Tugalo extends so far north, 
reserving all the islands in the said rivers Savannah and 
Tugalo to Georgia ; but if the head-spring or source of any 
branch or stream of the said river Tugalo does not extend 
to the northern boundary line of South Carolina, then a 
west line to the Mississippi to be drawn from the head- 
spring or source of the said branch or stream of Tugalo 
river, which extends to the highest northern latitude ; 
thence down the middle of the said river Mississippi until 
it shall intersect the northernmost part of the thirty-iirst 
degree of north latitude ; south by a line drawn due east 
from the termination of the line last mentioned, in the 
latitude of thirty-one degrees north of the equator, to the 
middle of the river Apalachicola or Chattahoochee ; thence 
along the middle thereof to its junction with Flint river, 
thence straight to the head of St. Mary's river, and thence 
along the middle of St. Mary's river to the Atlantic ocean ; 
and from thence to the mouth or inlet of Savannah river, 
the place of beginning ; including and comprehending all 
the lands and waters within the said limits, boundaries and 
jurisdictional rights ; and also all the islands within twenty 
leagues of the seacoast." 

At the time of Gov. Troup's birth, 8th September, 1780, 
all the country Avest of the present western boundary of 
Georgia (except a small portion of "West Florida,) and 



Chap. L] BIRTH, PARENTAGE, &C. 3 

within the limits aforesaid, were within the acknowledged 
limits of that State. It was within the bounds of the present 
State of Alabama, then a part of the territory of Georgia, 
that he was born. 

The following letter to Col. Pickett, the historiographer 
of Alabama, will show this fact and the precise spot of his 
nativity more clearly. The statement of Col. Pickett 
having been questioned, he wrote to Gov. Troup on the 
subject, and received the following reply: 

Yaldosta, ITovember 5th, 1852. 
Col. A. J. Pickett, 

Dear Sir : I have uniformly said to those who have 
appealed to me for facts connected with the history of 
persons and things in past time, and particularly such as 
relate to myself and family, that I have not a scrap of paper 
in the form of a record, memorial or authentic manuscript, 
that has been preserved for the purpose, or, indeed, any 
whatever, to my knowledge, spared by time, or by those 
yet more active destroyers, rats and mice. I must except 
the Bible, treasured by every family, and thus saved from 
the wasting influences of both. I have one of these, an old 
Oxford edition of 1772, in which is found recorded, in the 
hand-writing (the most beautiful and legible I ever saw,) 
of my father, the birth-place of six of his children. I 
copied this, word for word, into a new family Bible, and 
now have both before me. The following is a literal 
extract from the former, and all that appears in my father's 
hand-writing. 

" John Mcintosh Troup, born the od of December, 1778, 
at Mobile in West Florida. 

" George Michael Troup, born at Mcintosh's Blufl', on 
the river Tombigby, 8th of September, 1780. 

" David Troup, born at London, 8th ]S"ovember, 1781. 

" Koderick William Troup, born at Charleston, South 
Carolina, on Friday the 28th of February, 1783, at half- 
past three o'clock in the morning. 

" Kobert Lachlan Troup, born at Savannah, the day 

1784. 



4 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. I. 

" John James McGillivray Troup, born at Savannah, the 
Slstof August, 1786." 

You would not receive an historical fact better authenti- 
cated. It was the possession of this Bible which embold- 
ened me to send you anything for your history, touching 
the life of myself and family. Its chronology and register 
of places rendered it invaluable. It seems that mother or 
father, or both, were in Mobile in 1778 ; at Mcintosh's 
Bluff, on the Tombigby, in 1780 ; at London in 1781 ; at 
Charleston in the early part of 1783 ; at Savannah in 1784, 
and in Savannah still in 1786 ; and, finally, that having 
removed from Savannah, he was (although not in his hand- 
writing, but in the hand-writing of his chief clerk, an 
enlightened and educated man,) in 1778 in Mcintosh 
county, (old Georgia, if you please,) at his residence called 
Belleville, where he lived, died, and was buried. 

Thus you have, upon what I consider unquestionable 
evidence, the fact of my birth-place, to which I never 
ascribed any importance, and in which I could not imagine 
that any, out of our family, would feel the least interest. 
I never, for any moment of my life, doubted that I was 
born on the Tombigby. I was as much a native of Georgia 
as if born on the southern bank of the Savannah river, 
where Oglethorpe built his town, whether in possession and 
under the jurisdiction of Spaniards, Englishmen or Ameri- 
cans. The English occupation was short-lived, and acquired 
by force. Our constitutional and chartered rights were 
undoubted, and were never to be surrendered without our 
consent. The civilians may differ, but, if driven to the 
wall, I would be a Georgian or Alabamian by the law of 
Postliminium. You will see that what the registry of the 
family Bible exhibits, I implicitly adopt. What I had 
presumed to submit to you from the store-house of my frail 
memory, I deemed unreliable, and already T think that 
errors may be detected in that part which relates to the 
connection and alliances between the different branches of 
the Mclntoshes — a part which could only have been learned 
from my family and their friends, and in my earlier life. 



Chap. I.] BIRTH, PARENTAGE, &C. 5 

Major William Mclutosb, of Savannah, son of Col. John, 
and brother of the late Colonel who fell so gallantly imder 
the walls of Mexico, can, better than anybody else, make 
the correction, and, if they interest yon at all, you can use 
them as you please. There have been other mistakes 
besides the birth-place, and more amusing. Some of my 
kind friends, to assure themselves of my personal identity, 
have set me down in print and in writing with a middle 
name which I do not answer to, and Mcintosh has been 
preferred to Michael, on account, I presume, of my mother's 
name and genealogy, and my knov/n connection with that 
family. 

But certainly I have written enough on this subject, 
writing from a sick bed, and snatching intervals of pain. 
First, your urgent request ; second, the claims of truth, 
even in little things ; and third, the gratification of grati- 
fying the rational and harmless curiosity of esteemed 
friends, will be my apology, which will, I think, have been 
anticipated before you come to it. Yet I cannot close it 
without saying that my friend. Col. J. W. Jackson, had 
written a memoir, published in White's Statistics of Georgia, 
in which he not only eschews the mistake, but gives the 
true place and time as if from the original. lio man is 
more sensitive to every omission or departure from truth, 
and it would have pained him to have committed the most 
innocent error. This work, entirely of his own observation 
and research, according to the best lights extant, (I could 
aflord him nothing,) was the offspring of an affluence of 
friendship, was penned with a sedulous regard to matter of 
fact, and lofty disdain of everything that would savor of 
flattery or embellishment. Whilst he has most happily 
succeeded in the first, he may not, with all his care, have 
been so entirely successful in the last ; but, as far as it goes, 
and as far as it purposed, it is a true history, and greatly 
better than any I could have written myself, and has saved 
me a vast deal of trouble. 

Very truly and respectfully, your friend, 

G. M. Troup. 



6 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. I. 

P. S. It surprised me exceedingly, tliat you should have 
found among the old white Indian traders, any memorial or 
tradition of our family, although we had an uncle who 
was one of them — an uncle on our mother's side, and named 
Mcintosh — a very respectable man, I believe, for I never 
saw him but once, when a very small boy, he came from 
the Nation on a visit to my mother. Pie must have been 
the son of Capt. John, of Mcintosh Bluif. It is yet more 
remarkable they should have corroborated our Bible, as 
they assuredly did, when they said I was taken from the 
Tombigby when I was two or three years old. A few 
years after, I was a child at school with Miss Stuart at 
Savannah. G. M. T. 

The reader having been thus introduced to Major W. J. 
Mcintosh, of Savannah, we prefer to continue this narrative 
in his own words, reduced to writing at the request of the 
author, and bearing date 

Savannah, 1st February, 1858. 

Dear Sir : In compliance with your request respecting 
my recollections of the early life of the late Gov. Troup, 
of Georgia, I will reply briefly and as accurately as I can 
in connection with his family, but must go back prior to 
the first settlement of Georgia by its founder. General 
Oglethorpe, to trace his descent, especially on his mother's 
side, whose family was a branch of the Mclntoshes of 
Borlam, Inverness, Scotland; and I feel myself also called 
on by Gov. Troup, in a letter to Col. A. J. Pickett, the 
historian of Alabama, tv state the connection of the two 
families. And this induces me, necessarily, to introduce 
the name of Mcintosh so prominently, in speaking of this 
truly great and good man. 

Of his father's descent or history I know but little ; 
though, when a young boy, I was often in his house, a play- 
mate of his sons, at his residence called Belleville, a 
beautiful site on Sapelo river in the county of Mcintosh — • 
which name it still bears, but long since passed from the 
proprietorship of his family. The axe, neglect, and the 



Chap. I.] BIRTH, PARENTAGE, &C. 7 

ravages of time have left it but a faint picture of what it 
was when forest-clad, and under the improving hand of 
Mr. Troup. Here he became a planter, here he died, 
and here his remains were interred. He bore the repu- 
tation of a well-bred and honorable gentleman, born and 
educated in England ; and at one period of his life was 
extensively and successfully engaged in commerce, but 
was never for any length of time 3onfined to one locality. 
He married Catharine, the daughter of Captain John 
Mcintosh, and we find from an old, well-preserved Bible — ■ 
the family record — that although Mr, Troup had six sons, 
no two were born in the same place, except the two 
youngest. ^ * * -if 

These sons are all deceased. The Governor, who sur- 
vived his brothers, was called George Mcintosh Troup, 
from his known connection with the family, instead of 
George Michael, his real middle nime. His eldest brother 
it was who bore the name of Mslntosh after his grand- 
father. The initial of their middle names being the same, 
the imimportant mistake was easily made, but was never 
adopted or sanctioned by the Governor himself. 

Mr. Troup, the father, married, as before stated, Catha- 
rine, the daughter of Captain John Mcintosh, brother of the 
eccentric Captain Roderick Mcintosh, of the British army, 
commonly called Rory, with whom the late Mr. John 
Couper, of St. Simon's Island, a distinguished and intelli- 
gent planter, was well acquainted during the Revolutionary 
war, and of whom he gives some amusing anecdotes in 
White's Historical Collections. Mrs. Troup's father and 
his eccentric brother were relations of John More Mcintosh, 
the progenitor of the name in Georgia, and who served 
under General Oglethorpe, as commander of the High- 
landers, in their battles with the troops of Spain in Georgia 
and in Florida. Many of this clan suifered severely in the 
Rebellion of 1715 and in that of '45, in consequence of their 
adhesion to the interest of the Stuarts, and taking up arms 
in their cause under the Earl of Mar against the Hanoverian 
succession to the crown of England ; not because those 



8 LITE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. I. 

Highlanders believed in the " Divine right '' of their kings, 
but the right to war against the usurpation of a throne, the 
rightful heir to which they believed to be a descendant of 
the House of Stuart. 

Captain John Mcintosh had also a son, William, brother 
of Mrs. Troup, and who was a captain in the British army, 
and also an agent of that government, under Col. Stuart, to 
the Muscogee or Creek nation of Indians during the Eevo- 
lutionary war, and who was the father of the Indian Chief, 
Gen. William Mcintosh, the friend of civilization among 
his own people, and the friend of Georgia, and who won 
for himself a Brigadier's commission from the United 
States, by bravely fighting against and subduing the hostile 
Indian tribes in Georgia, in Alabama and in Florida, under 
Gen. Jackson. This warrior-chief had a brother named 
after liis grand-uncle, the eccentric Captain Rory, and 
who, it has been said, was in council what his brother was 
in the field. These men were the first (Indian) cousins of 
Gov. Troup, and it was remarked of their father, the Gov- 
ernor's uncle, that he was a " brave and generous man, 
and was qualified, physically and morally, to have figured 
in the most desperate strife." This gentleman, after the 
Revolutionary war, m^arried a sister of the late Gen. John 
Mcintosh, of the Revolution, which drew closer the con- 
necting tie of the two families. 

The father * of Gov. Troup, though often removing from 
place to place, was a lover of books, and had secured a 
well selected little library for his residence at Belleville, 
where his son George received the rudiments of his early 
education, under the guidance of a private tutor and the eye 
of his father ; and in this library, where he had free access, 
he acquired the taste for reading, and that delight in books, 
not usual with boys of his age. His hours of relaxation 
from study were spent with his horse, his dogs and his gun, 
in the use of which he was indulged by his father, his oldest 

* It seems that this gentleman was at one time engaged in mercantile business at 
Charleston, S. C, and Sunbury, Ga., with Col. John Baker, of Liberty county, who died 
in the year 1792.— Ed. 



Chap. I.] BIRTH, PARENTAGE, &c. § 

brother having died early, and the others being too .young 
to participate fully in their enjoyment. He was afterwards 
sent to school in Savannah, and, at a proper age, to Eras- 
mus Hall, an academy then of great repnte in Flatbush, on 
Long Island, New York, where many youths of the South 
were educated ; at the head of which was Doctor Peter 
Wilson, an elderly and religious Scotch gentleman of great 
learning, afterwards of Columbia College in the city of 
New York. 

The Doctor was a stern, unbending Republican, much 
respected by the students ; and many of them here doubtless 
took their bia?, and imbibed their predilections in favor of 
the cause he was known to espouse ; and during the contest 
for the Presidency, between Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson, 
and when the excitement was high and boisterous in Flat- 
bush, amongst the village politicians, there were frequent 
gatherings to discuss the claims of the candidates. "When 
these were seen, and yonng Troup could by any means be 
present, there he would be, amongst the old nien, ready to 
engage in argument, and could scarcely be restrained by 
older heads and less excited friends, from mingling in the 
crowd and taking part in the discussion, unmindful or I'c- 
gardless of the danger to which his youth and fiery zeal in 
favor of Mr. Jefferson, would expose him, I was at Flat- 
bush with him, and frequently witnessed the great concern 
he manifested for the success of the Republican candidate. 

He was of a slender frame, fair complexion, good figure, 
and rather handsome ; of a feeling heart, and susceptible 
of the kindest emotions. He was studious, and of a warm 
temperament, polite and friendly to his fellow-students, but 
never seemed to have formed any close, boyish or bosom 
friendships, so common among youths of his age ; inclined 
to taciturnity and reflection, though not backward in the 
enjoyment of the manlier sports of the time. He was 
exceedingly tenacious of his honor ; and any reflection 
calculated to impair it, would be instantly met by a pun- 
gent reproof, in a seemingly quiet way, yet sufficiently 
significant of his determination, if the insult were not 
2 



10 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. I. 

retracted, to proceed to extreme measures ; and his decision 
of character was so well known, that he never had the 
trouble of doing more. I never knew him to be concerned 
in any senseless, wicked or mischievous act, that would 
reflect discredit on his name, or involve him in unpleasant 
scrapes, which were common enough then and there ; and 
when he thought himself sufficiently advanced in his 
studies for college, he left Erasmns Hall, for Princeton, 
with an unsullied reputation. It was supposed, by his 
associates, that he woitld not look higher, on entering col- 
lege, than the Sophomore class; but they were soon 
surprised, on learning, that, without difficulty, he became 
a member of the Junior class ; and in due time he gradu- 
ated with distinction. 

He returned to Georgia, and commenced the study of 
law in Mr. Noel's office in Savannah ; and, whilst so en- 
gaged, he wrote many political essays, over the signature 
of Z, much admired as coming from so young a man. 
About this time, he was appointed, by his friend and 
patron, Gen. James Jackson, then Governor of Georgia, 
and the scourge of evil-doers, his Aid, with the tit'o of 
Colonel, then considered more honorable than now, from 
the indiscriminate manner in which the title is conferred. 

Emerging from his minority, in 1801, he was elected to 
the Legislature, where he at once occupied a high position. 
In 1804, he removed to Bryan county, having previously 
married Miss McCormick ; and, as soon as constitutionally 
eligible, was elected to Congress, of which he was a mem- 
ber until 1815, when he retired to private life. His support 
was given to the administrations of Mr. Jefferson and Mr. 
Madison ; and he possessed the entire confidence of both 
these eminently great men, and was chairman of the com- 
mittee on Military Affairs during the war — a position ar- 
duous and of great responsibility. 

In the year 1809,""' having been a widower for some 

* The exact Jats of Col. Troup's second marriage was the 8th of November, 1809. 
The fact w.ia thus announced in the Savannah Keptiblican. of 25th November. 1S09: 



Chap. I.] BIRTH, PARENTAGE, iic. |1 

years, and without children, he married Miss Carter, a lady 
of Virginia, by whom he had six children, three of whom, 
two daughters and a son, arrived at maturity. The eldest 
daughter married Thomas Br3'an, Esq. ; by which union 
there were born to Gov. Troup several grand-children. 

I find that I have already gone beyond the limit of your 
request, to wit, my recollection of Gov. Troup's early life, 
the characteristics of his boyhood, &;c., &c. I trust an 
exact and impartial history of his public life, services and 
character, may soon be accessible to all. 

Truly, your friend and obedient servant, 

W. J. McIntosh. 

The precise year of Gov. Troup's graduation at Prince- 
ton, was 1797, one year after that of his cotemporary, Judge 
Berrien, and two before that of Mr. Forsyth. On his re- 
turn to^Georgia, he entered the law olfice of the Hon. John 
Y. Noel, at Savannah. On the 29th day of May, 1800, he 
was admitted, before the Superior Court of Chatham county, 
the Hon. Thomas P. Carnes presiding, to plead and prac- 
tice, as an attorney, solicitor and proctor, in the several 
courts of law and equity in the State, on the certificate of 
Thomas Gibbons, Chayles Harris and William B. Bulloch, 
Esquires, stating, that, " after due examination, we conceive 
him fully entitled to admission, and recommend him ac- 
cordingly." It does not appear that he ever practiced law 
to any extent. Even had his taste lain in that direction, 
his early connection with political and public life would 
have interfered with the duties and calls of a profession, re- 
quiring, for its active pursuit, all the zeal -^and energy of 
early manhood and mature life. In 1800, he declined an 
election to the Legislature, (at the call of the Republican 



"Alexandria, Nov. 11. 

'• Jfairied, on the 8th instant, by the Kev. Mr. Gibson, tieorgc M. Troup, Esq., member of 
the Ilouse of Kepresentative s from Georgia, to the amiable and accomplished Miss Ann Carter. 
daughter of the late George Carter, Esq." 

Besides Florida, (the wife of Thomas M. Forman, Eaq.,) who died several years before iiej- 
father. Col. Troup left, by this marriage, two other children — Oralio, who is yet living, and 
George M., who died within two years after the decease of his father. Mrs. Troup died in 
May, 1828, many years before the Governor.— Ed. 



12 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. I. 

party of Chatham county,) on account of his minority. In 
1801, he consented to serve, and was elected a Kepresenta- 
tive ; and he was re-elected to the same post, in 1802, and 
again in 1803. The General Assembly then sat at Louis- 
ville ; and there, on the 30th of October, 1803, he was 
married to Miss Ann St. Clare McCorraick, eldest daughter 
of Dr. James McCormick, then late of that place. In 1804, 
he removed to the county of Bryan, and settled at a place, 
near Hardwicke, now known as Troup's Old Field. x\t 
this place, he had the misfortune to lose his wife, on 30th 
September, 1801r, less than a year after his marriage.* 
The exact length of his residence in Bryan county is not 
known ; but the county records show, that, in the year 1805. 
he was placed, by the Inferior Court, on the list of those 
owning slaves liable to do road duty, and that he was also 
put on the grand jur}'- list ; though the minutes of the Court 
do not show that he was drawn, or that he ever served, as 
a juror. It was probably because of his domestic loss, that 
he returned to Savannah, where he seems to have been re- 
siding at his election to Congress in 1806. 

We may close this portion of the narrative, by remark- 
ing, that if, as a boy, his manner was reserved and unob- 
trusive, so, when he came to act a part in tlie drama of life, 
he seems to have been unconscious of possessing those 
qualities which endeared him to his fcUow-citizens, and 
which were fitting him to pass, with honor, through scenes 
as trying as they were checkered. 

From Pickett's History of Alabama, (vol. 2, beginning 

* The circumstancBS connectad with the death of this lady, possess a melancholy interrst, 
and may not be out of pltice here. Colonel Troup had prepared himself for a life of conju{.;al 
happiness, and had fitted up his house with the luxuries as well as the comforts of life. Mis. 
Troup having been taken suddenly ill, a physician was sought in vain. As the only resort, a 
neighbor, who had considerable experience in blood-letting, was sent for, as the Bympton.'S 
seemed to warrant the belief that bleeding would relieve the patient. On his arrival, the 
nsigiibor proceeded to bind up the arm, and was about to apply the lancet, when, in his anx- 
iety, Col. Troup asked : " W s, do you think you can bleed her?" The reply was, " No!" 

The arm was immediately unbound, and the patient died. It seems that the question of the 
anxious husband conveyed to the mind of the proposed operator, a doubt whether the opera- 
tion would be successfully performed ; and, to use the language of the latter, so " unmanned" 
him as to destroy his confidence in his own skill. In relating these facts to the writer, nearly 
fifty years after their occurrence, the gentleman, to whom reference is made, did not eeem to 
entertain any doubt that venesection would have relieved the patient— Ed. 



Chap. I.] BIRTH, PARENTAGE, &c. 13 

at page 198,) published in 1851, we make the following 
extract : 

" At the close of our last chapter, it was stated that the 
first American Court held in Alabama, was at Mcintosh 
Bluff, which is situated upon the western bank of the 
Tombigby, between its confluence with the Alabama and 
the town of St. Stephen's. Connected with this Bluff, there 
is, to us, a pleasing historical reminiscence. Alabama has 
the honor of being the birth-place of George M. Troup, 
late Governor of Georgia, and who is one of the most vigor- 
ous and expressive political and epistolary writers of the 
age. His grandfather, Captain John Mcintosh, the chief 
of the Mcintosh clan, was long attached to the army of 
West Florida ; and his valuable services were rewarded, by 
the King of England, with the grant of Mcintosh Bluff, 
and extensive tracts of land upon the Mississippi. He had 
a son, who was also a British officer, and a daughter, a native 
of Georgia. The latter, while on a visit to England, 
married an officer of the royal army, named Troup. She 
sailed from England to Mobile, and, arriving at the latter 
place, entered a barge, and went up the Tombigby river to 
the residence of her father, at Mcintosh Bluff, where, in 
the wilds of Alabama, Governor Troup was born, in Sep- 
tember, 1780." 

An article has recently appeared in a Georgia newspaper, 
from which the following is extracted : 

" A paper was published in Louisville, Jefferson county, 
prior to 1800, by Ambrose Day. It was called the Louis- 
ville Gazette & Reviiblican Trumpet^ and George M. Troup, 
at that time a lawyer in Savannah, contributed to its edito- 
rial columns, althougli not generally known as the editor." 

Having no reason to question the correctness of the above, 
in other respects, it is yet certain that Colonel Troup was 
not admitted to the Bar until 1800. 



14: LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. II. 

CHAPTEE II. 

Earlij Career an a Publir Man. 

Theke is every reason to believe that tlie subject of tliis 
memoir would have become eminent in the higher branches 
of the legal profession, had he devoted his manhood to the 
study and practice of law. Such was the opinion of his 
legal preceptor, a gentleman of distinction and of great 
acquirements in the science, and who was well qualified to 
form a proper judgment of the mental capacity of his 
student. The rigid course of preparation then necessary to 
bring a young man forward as a candidate for professional 
honors and emolument, favored the development of those 
qualities which are necessary to the successful practice of 
a science, in which, although many accumulate property, 
comparatively few acquire a solid or lasting reputation. 
The progress of this history will tend only to strengthen the 
opinion thus formed of Gov. Troup's talents, at a time when 
the future statesman contemplated probably little more than 
the strifes of the forum, and the promotion which, especi- 
ally in a free Government, attends the career of the diligent 
and well-trained lawyer. His retirement from the bar, at 
an early period after his admission, was owing, perhaps, as 
much to want of taste for forensic display, as to the times 
when he graduated as a lawyer, and which were calculated 
to draw into the service of the State young men of talents 
and patriotism. His habits were always retiring ; yet, the 
probability is, that, in weighing the chances of usefulness 
to the ])ublic, he settled down into a conviction that he 
could be more serviceable in political life ; the more especi- 
ally, as it was one from which, v/ithout injury to private 
interests, he could at any moment retire — as he always did 
— whenever no public emergency seemed to render his 
services necessary. That he deferred much to the j udgraent 



Chap. II.] EARLY CAREER A8 A PUBLIC MAls. lA 

of bis friends, in the estimate which ho put upon his ser- 
vices, is true ; and one of the beauties of his life seems to 
have been, that his patriotism was tempered by a modesty, 
which, whilst it was ready to yield to the suggestions of 
friendship, was still not of a kind to betray him into a want 
of proper coniidence in himself when the occasion demanded 
a surrender of his time and talents to'the public good. But, 
whether from taste or otherwise, it is certain he did not 
practice long enough to acquire reputation as a lawyer; 
and there is rea son to doubt if he practiced at all. It is not 
improbable that he appeared as an advocate, on the criminal 
side of the court ; but the records of the court, where he 
was admitted, do not show that he brought any suits there. 
The year 1800 is memorable for the overthrow of the 
Federal party under John Adams, and the election of 
Thomas Jefferson. This was the first trial of strength be- 
tween the two parties which openly succeeded the retire- 
ment of Washington from the Presidency ; and the princi- 
ples of which turned upon the different modes of construing 
the Federal Constitution. Those who favored a strong 
government, voted for Mr. Adams; the friends of a strict 
construction and of the rights of the States, voted for and 
elected Mr. Jefferson. We have seen that young Troup 
was a Republican at the school on Long Island. On his 
return to Georgia, he lost none of his zeal for the same cause. 
It was upon the principles of that party he planted himself, 
as soon as he could form a judgment for himself; and surely 
he never afterwards gave occasion to friend or foe to taunt 
him with abandonment of principle. His enemies being 
judges, he never advocated the principles of consolidation ; 
and, in the judgment of his friends, if he erred at all, it 
was on the side of the rights of the co-equal and sovereign 
States of the Union. 

But, independently of her federal relations, Georgia was 
in a peculiar and an interesting condition at home. Only a 
few years had elapsed since the honor of the State was 
tarnished by one of the most stupendous frauds recorded in 
historv. This is known as the Ya/oo fraud, a full narrative 



\Q LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROTJP. [Chap. II. 

of wliich belongs rather to the documentary history of 
Georgia, than to a biography. "We have seen that the west- 
ern boundary of Georgia extended to the Mississippi River, 
and embraced the larger portion of the present States of 
Alabama and Mississippi. A small river, in the last men- 
tioned State, gave the name to a transaction which brought 
deserved infamy upon its authors. The fraud has been thus 
briefly described : " Several projects for the sale of large 
tracts of country within the limits of Georgia, were, at dif- 
ferent periods, presented to the Legislature. However 
contrary to good policy, they were listened to. But it is 
probable the majority of tliat body never had sagacity 
enough to foresee the rapidity with which population and 
wealth would increase, giving in their progress an immense 
value to what was then a wilderness. Be that as it may, 
however, we find them, in 1789, [VYatkins' Digest, p. 387,] 
entering into a contract with these companies for the sale of 
fifteen or twenty millions of acres of land, including a vast 
tract bordering on the Mississippi River. But a dispute 
arose about the payment of the purchase money ; and the 
condition upon which the grants were to issue, was not 
complied with. During the session of 1794-5, the General 
Assembly passed an act conveying to four associations, 
called the Georgia, the Georgia Mississippi, the Upper 
Mississippi, and Tennessee Companies, about 35,000,000 of 
acres of land, lying between the rivers Mississippi, Tennessee, 
Coosa, Alabama and Mobile. The bill was warmly con- 
tested in both houses, and had also to encounter opposition 
from the Governor. It ultimately passed, however, by a 
majority of ten in the House of Representatives, and two 
in the Senate. The sale of so large a territory was received 
by the people with an almost unanimous burst of indigna- 
tion, for it was soon known that nearly all the members 
who voted for the law, had been either directly or indi- 
rectly corrupted by the purchasers."* 
The succeeding Legislature passed an Act, reciting, 

* The consideration for this sale was five hundred thousand dollars. For the Act 
itself, see Watkins' Digest, pp. 557 to 066.~Ed. 



Chap. II.] " EARLY CAREER AS A PUBLIC MAN. 17 

amongst other things, " Whereas the hist Legislature of 
this State, not confining itself to the powers with which that 
body was constitutionally invested, did usurp a power to 
pass an act, on the seventh day of January, one thousand 
seven hundred and ninety-five, entitled ' An act supple- 
mentary to an act for appropriating a part of the unlocated 
territory of this State, for the payment of the late State 
troops and for other purposes therein mentioned, declaring 
the right of this State to the unappropriated territory there- 
of, and for other purposes ;' by which an enormous tract 
of unascertained millions of acres of the vacant territory 
of this State, was attempted to be disposed of to a few in- 
dividuals in fee simple, and the same is not only unfounded 
as being without express constitutional authority, but is 
repugnant to that authority as well as to the principles and 
form of government the good citizens of this State have 
chosen for their rule, which is democratical, or a govern- 
ment founded on equality of rights ; and which is totally 
opposed to all proprietary grants or monopolies in favor of 
a few, which tend to build up that destructive aristocracy 
in the new, which is tumbling in the old, world ; and which, 
if permitted, must end in the annihilation of democracy 
and equal rights, those rights and principles of government 
which our virtuous forefathers fought for and established 
vrith their blood " ; and the Act proceeded to declare " the 
said usurped act" to be '' null and void," and to annul all 
grants thereunder, and further, "that within three days 
after the passage of this act, the different branches of the 
Legislature shall assemble together, at which meeting the 
officers shall attend with the several records, documents 
and deeds in the Secretary's, Surveyor-General's and other 
public offices, and which records and documents shall then 
and there be expunged from the face and indexes of the 
books of record of the State, and the enrolled law or usurped 
act shall then be publicly burnt, in order that no trace of 
so unconstitutional, vile and fraudulent a transaction, other 
than the infamy attached to it by this law, shall remain in 
the public ofiices thereof," &c., &c. 
3 



18 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap, II. 

Foremost and most effective in his opposition to this 
"usurped act," was Gen. James Jackson. Being then a 
Senator in Congress, he resigned his place, came home, 
M'as elected to the Legislature, and aided in passing the 
annulling law. The following account of the burning de- 
serves a place here : 

" Having determined that the act was ' usurped,' it was 
considered rightful that the records and documents pertain- 
ing to the sale should forthwith be destroyed. No monu- 
ment of its wickedness should remain in the public offices, to 
give flattering assurance to the speculator that his corrupt 
machinations might yet be gratified. It was necessary to 
show to the universe, by decided conduct, that Georgia 
loathed the corruption, loathed the speculators, loathed the 
evidences of fraud, and would never abandon her ground ! 
By order of the two Houses, afire was kindled in the great 
square in front of the State House. Thousands of happy 
and elated citizens, who proudly conceived that their 
wrongs were redressed, had repaired to the spot, to witness 
the most remarkable spectacle ever presented within our 
limits. They wer,e convened from every part of the State ; 
and had, from the commencement of the session, remained 
at Louisville, intensely surveying the proceedings of each 
successive day. A circle was formed by the members, 
around the fire, the Governor and the high officers of the 
Departments being present. John Milton, the Secretary of 
State, and the Committee of Three who reported the mode 
of destroying the testimonies of our debasement, Mr. Sims, 
Mr. Few and Gen. Jackson, produced from the archives the 
enrolled bill and usurped Act. These were delivered to 
the President of the Senate, for examination. By him they 
were passed to the Speaker of the House, who handed them, 
after inspection, to the Clerk. He read aloud their titles, 
and gave them to the Messenger, who, committing them to 
the flames, cried out with loud and decisive voice, 

' God save the State, and long jrreseTve her Bights, and 
may every attempt to ivjure them perish as these wicked and 
corrupt Acts now do .' ' " * 

* Savannah Kcpublican, and Georgia Journal, for 1825. — Ed. 



Chap. II.] EARLY CAREER AS A TUBLIC MAN. 19 

"Whilst these things were passing in Georgia, young Troup 
was quietly pursuing his college studies at Princeton. But 
he was not an inattentive observer of the political events 
in his State. His subsequent course in the Legislature 
showed that he was an enemy to the enemies of Georgia, 
and that the Yazoo fraud touched no chord of sympathy in 
his bosom. The imperfect history of the times does not 
enable us to state, with certainty, more than that, as a 
member of the Legislature in 1801, 1802 and 1803, he ful- 
filled the just expectations of his friends, giving his support 
to such measures as were calculated to advance the interests 
of the State, and maintaining those republican principles 
on which rests the liberty of the country. He was soon to 
be transferred to a wider if not a more useful field of labor, 
where we shall find him, as ever, the enemy of fraud'-^" and 
the champion of liberty, justice and equality. 

In 1806, Joseph Bryan, one of the Kepresentatives from 
Georgia, having resigned his seat in Congress, Col. Troup 
consented to become a candidate for the vacant ofiice, 
which the Governor had ordered to be filled by an elec- 
tion to take place on the first day of September. The 
following neat and just tribute was published, editorially, 
in a Savannah paper of that date : 

[From "The Southern Patriot," September Ist, ISOG.] 

This day an election takes place for a member to repre- 
sent this State in the Congress of the United States, for the 
residue of Mr. Bryan's term. Col. G. M. Troup is among 
the candidates, a gentleman whose republicanism, integrity 
and talents entitle him to claim a very distinguished place 
in the afi:ections of the people of this county, as well as of 
his fellow-citizens at large. He has frequently represented 
the people of this county in the General Assembly of this 
State, and in that capacity has' discharged his duty not only 
to the perfect approbation of his constituents, but in a man- 
ner highly honorable to his own firmness, consistency and 

* A succeeding chapter is devoted to Col. Troup's course in Congress ou tlie Yazoo 
fraud, and his speeches on that subject. — Ed. 



20 TJFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. II- 

patriotism. It is expecti.d that his old friends will not be 
backward or lukewarm at this important occasion, but that 
they will come forward with their usual alacrity and zeal. 
Col. Troup has never in a single instance deviated from the 
persuasion of a democratic republican ; but if personal and 
political honesty, combined with the warmest and most 
enthusiastic attachment to the government and constitution 
of his country, are qualifications which all virtuous men 
wish to see concentrated in the character of a representative 
of the people, then this gentleman is entitled to the respect 
even of that class of his fellow-citizens between whom and 
himself there may be some shades of difference in political 
opinion. 

The election resulted in the choice of Dr. Dennis Smelt; 
but, at the general election held just five weeks after, 6tli 
October, 1806, Col. Troup was elected, with Dennis Smelt, 
AVilliam W. Bibb and Howell Cobb, a T^epresentative for 
the full term to commence on the 4th of March, 1807 ; and 
he took his seat in the House of Representatives at Wash- 
ington, on the 26th day of October, 1807. 

The rapidity with which he had acquired the public 
confidence and risen to stations of honor and responsibility, 
whilst it did not inflate his pride, seems not to have excited 
the apprehension of his friends. If there were no other 
evidence of his integrity and talents, this sudden promotion 
to important stations, as soon as he was constitutionally 
eligible to them, would afi:brd strong presumption that he 
possessed both qualifications ; but the proof will be fur- 
nished when we come to consider his acts. It is believed 
that he never solicited an appointment of any kind ; and 
this is known to be true of him in mature life. This was in 
the earlier if not the better days of the republic. How far such 
conduct may commend itself to the politicians of the present 
day, the future historian of the country must determine. 

In 1824,* he said : " Our political morality will never 
be pui'e as long as offices are sought with the avidity and 

* Sec bis animal message, as Governor, for 1821. — Ep. 



Chap. II.] EARLY CAREER AS A PUBLIC MAN. 21 

importnnity which now distinguisli the canvass for them in 
all the States with the exception of New England. "When- 
ever it is believed by the people that those who seek office 
with most eagerness, are frequently the most unworthy, the 
evil will have found its remedy. Merit is always con- 
spicuous enough, and our people will be sufficiently enlight- 
ened to discover and appreciate it. The nomination, 
therefore, as well as the election of the candidate, ought to 
belong to them. The American historian will blush to 
record the scenes in which, within the passing year, can- 
didates for the first dignity have not disdained to be actors. 
A practice, ripened into custom among a whole people, 
though proved to be a bad one, is not easily changed or 
discontinued. It is known that this must be the work of 
time, and of the intelligence and virtue of the people 
themselves. Whilst I am disposed to respect as I ought, 
long established habits and opinions, 1 would reproach 
myself were I to withhold a single sentiment, the expres- 
sion of which it was believed the interest or honor of the 
country required." 

At a subsequent period — one important in the history of 
Georgia — and when there was danger of conflict between 
Federal and State authority, he used this remarkable lan- 
guage, in a message to the Legislature, in reference to 
himself : " If it be possible, which I do not permit myself 
to believe, that a certain person filling a certain station, 
Stands in the way of the peace and harmony which ought 
ever to subsist between this and the general government, 
and on this account valuable interests are endangered, that 
person will retire instantly, and with much more pleasure 
than he ever occupied that station.-' 

Knowing the sincerity of Gov. Troup's heart, and the 
frankness of his character, the reader may well believe he 
spoke truly of himself, when, in his inaugural address of 
1825, he said, " possessing no very great confidence in my 
own qualifications for the public service, I have not habitu- 
ally or pertinaciously sought the public favor." 



22 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. III. 



CHAPTEE III. 

State of the Covmiry. — Mr. Tronp in Congress. — His Course 
There. 

The year 1807 was an eventful one in the history of the 
United States. The two great belligerents of Europe, 
England and France, were contending for supremacy, and 
what the latter had gained on land, she had some time 
before lost on the ocean. England was the acknowledged 
mistress of the seas. For years previously, the neutral 
commerce of the United States had suffered by the desola- 
ting wars of Europe, to which we were no party. A detail 
of the consequences of this state of things, belongs rather to 
a general history of the country, but they will be noticed 
sufficiently, in the progress of this work, to give a general 
idea of the irritating causes which finally led to the war of 
1812. It was in vain that the United States insisted upon 
their rights, as a neutral power, to carry on trade with 
either belligerent, or with any other European nation — 
contraband of war only excepted. Negotiation had failed, 
and was likely still to prove fruitless. As a last resort, Mr. 
Jefferson, in 1807, recommended an embargo. This was 
resisted by nearly the whole power of the Federal party, 
whilst the Republicans as generally supported it. In his 
message to Congress, of 18th December, the President said : 
"The communications now made, showing the great and 
increasing dangers with which our vessels, our seamen and 
merchandise are threatened on the high seas and else- 
where, from the belligerent powers of Europe, and it being 
of great importance to keep in safety these essential re- 
sources, I deem it my duty to recommend the subject to 
Congress, who will doubtless perceive all the advantages 
which may be expected from an inhibition of the departure 
of our vessels from the ports of the United States. Their 



Chap III.] STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 23 

wisdom will also see the necessity of making every prepa- 
ration for whatever events may grow out of the present 
crisis." 

A bill was accordingly introduced, the same day, to lay 
" an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and 
harbors of the United States ;" and after a debate of four 
days, and sundry amendments, was passed in the Houso by 
a vote of eighty-two to forty-four — Col. Troup voting in the 
affirmative. It passed the Senate, the same day, with the 
amendments, and was immediately approved by the Presi- 
dent. It provided, amongst other things, that "an embargo 
be, and is hereby laid on all ships and vessels in the ports and 
places within the limits or jurisdiction of the United States, 
cleared or not cleared, bound to any foreign port or place; 
and that no clearance be furnished to any ship or vessel 
Bound to such foreign port or place, except vessels under the 
immediate direction of the President of the United States; 
and that the President be authorized to give such instruc- 
tions to the officers of the revenue, and of the navy and 
revenue cutters of the United States, as shall appear best 
adapted for carrying the same into full effect : Provided, 
that nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent 
the departure of any foreign ship or vessel, either in ballast 
or with the goods, wares and merchandise on board of such 
foreign ship or vessel, when notified of this act." The 
second section enacted, " that during the continuance of 
this act, no registered or sea-letter vessel, having on board 
goods, wares and merchandise, shall be allowed to depart 
from one port of the United States to any other within the 
same, unless the master, owner, consignee or factor of such 
vessel shall first give bond, with one or more sureties, to the 
collector of the district from which she is bound to depart, in 
a sum of double the value of the vessel and cargo, that the 
said goods, wares or merchandise shall be relanded in some 
port of the United States, dangers of the seas excepted, 
which bond, and also a certificate from the collector where 
the same may be relanded, shall by the collector respective- 
ly be transmitted to the Secretary of the Treasury. All 



24: LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. III. 

armed vessels possessing public commissions from any 
foreign power, are not to be considered as liable to the 
embargo laid by this act." 

This was the beginning of a system of commercial re- 
strictions, intended, not so much as measures of retaliation, 
as an inducement to the two great belligerent powers of 
Europe to respect the rights of a neutral pursuing her 
lawful commerce without interference in the quarrels of 
the world, with which the United States were then at peace. 
The blow was virtually aimed at England, which the Fed- 
eral party were supposed to favor ; whilst they, in turn, 
accused the Kepublicans of too great partialitj^ for France. 
That some measure of this sort was necessary, the judg- 
ment of the country has since proved ; but it revived, at the 
time, all the bitterness of party spirit which had seemed to 
become dormant, to a great extent, on the re-election of 
Mr. Jefferson in 180i. 

But another, and, for the time, a more serious occasion 
for alarm, grew out of the pretended right of Great Britain 
to search American vessels for British subjects. Tiiis 
doctrine of impressment was one to which the United States 
could never give their sanction. If a neutral flag could 
not protect neutral property, it was yet in the power of 
Congress, by a system of embargo, or non-intercourse, to 
make it the interest of the British people to respect the 
rights of neutrals ; but the doctrine of impressment struck 
at the right of the government to protect itself from the 
violation of a fundamental principle of our national policy 
— the right of every citizen or subject to throw off his 
allegiance — in opposition to the English theory — once a 
subject, alivaysa subject. But even if this theory were right, 
its application must be attended with difliculty. Who is 
to judge whether a man be a British-born subject or a 
native citizen of the United States? That the question 
under consideration led practically to gross oppression in 
many instances, was true. But injury to the rights of in- 
dividuals was not the only consequence of the attempt to 
enforce this doctrine of impressment. It gave occasion for 



Chap. III.] MEETING OF CONGRESS. 25 

an act of atrocity on the part of Great Britain, equaled 
only by the acts of vandalism committed subsequently by 
her soldiery at the capture of Washington City. We refer 
to the affair of the Chesapeake. This occurred on the 22d 
of June. On the 30th of July, the President, by proclama- 
tion, required Congress to assemble on the 26th day of 
October, assigning as the reason that "great and weighty 
matters claiming the consideration of the Congress of the 
United States, form an extraordinary occasion for convening 
them." Congress convened accordingly. The Representa- 
tives from Georgia, as before stated, were William W. Bibb, 
Howell Cobb, Dennis Smelt and George M. Troup. In his 
opening message, the President said : " Circumstances, 
fellow-citizens, which seriously threatened the peace of our 
country, have made it a duty to convene you at an earlier 
period than usual. The love of peace, so much cherished 
in the bosoms of our citizens, which has so long guided the 
proceedings of the public councils, and induced forbearance 
under so many wrongs, may not insure our continuance in 
the quiet pursuits of industry. The many injuries and 
depredations committed on our commerce and navigation 
upon the high seas, for many years past ; the successive 
innovations on those principles of public law which have 
been established by the reason and usage of nations as the 
rule of their intercourse, and the umpire and security of 
their rights and peace, and all the circumstances which 
induced the extraordinary mission to London, are already 
known to you. The instructions given to our ministers 
were framed in the sincerestspiritof amity and moderation. 
They accordingly proceeded, in conformity therewith, to 
propose arrangements which might embrace and settle all 
the points in difference between us, which might bring us 
to a mutual understanding on our neutral and national 
rights, and provide for a commercial intercourse on condi- 
tions of some equality. After long and fruitless endeavors 
to effect the purposes of the mission, and to obtain arrange- 
ments within the limits of their instructions, they concluded 
to sign such as could be obtained, and to send them for 
4 



26 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. Ill- 

consideration, candidly declaring to tlie other negotiators, 
at the same time, that they were acting aguiust their in- 
structions, and that their government therefore could not 
be pledged for ratification. Some of the articles proposed 
might have been admitted on a principle of compromise, 
but others were too highly disadvantageous, and no suffi- 
cient provision was made against the principal sources of 
the irritations and collisions which were constantly en- 
dangering the peace of the two nations. The question, 
therefore, whether a treaty should be accepted in that form, 
could have admitted of but one decision, even had no decla- 
rations of the other party impaired our confidence in it. 
Still anxious not to close the door against friendly adjust- 
ment, new modifications were framed, and further conces- 
sions authorized than could before have been supposed 
necessary ; and our ministers were instructed to resume 
their negotiations on these grounds. On this new reference 
to amicable adjustment we were reposing in confidence, 
when, on the 22d day of June last, by a formal order from 
the British Admiral, the frigate Chesapeake, leaving her 
port for distant service, was attacked by one of those vessels 
which had been lying in our harbors under the indulgence 
of hospitality, was disabled from proceeding, had several 
of her crew killed, and four taken away. On this outrage 
no commentaries are necessary. Its character has been 
pronounced by the indignant voice of our citizens, with an 
emphasis and unanimity never exceeded." 

The war spirit had been fairly aroused ; and although no 
solemn declaration of war or other open acts of hostility 
were made for about five years afterwards, yet it was evi- 
dent that war was inevitable, except by the sacrifice of the 
national honor, or by the retreat of England from her ex- 
travagant pretensions. War did follow, and the spirit 
which animated it was never allayed until that war was 
terminated in " a hlaze of glory at New Orleans ! " 

We have seen that the embargo received the support of 
Col. Troup. On the 20th February, 1808, a bill supple- 
mentary to the embargo law being before the House, he 



Chap. III.] THE EMBARGO. 27 

observed that he had always thought the measure of the 
embargo was the best for our situation that could be de- 
vised, and had no doubt that if the measure had been 
followed up by a pertinent system of defence, it would have 
produced an honorable peace even by this time. For the 
same reason he wished the embargo to be rendered 
effectual. 

Nor were the people of Georgia unmindful of the condi- 
tion of affairs which were transpiring, or of the measures 
that it would be proper to adopt in case hostilities should 
become inevitable. On the 20th of December, 1808, the 
Governor approved an address to the President, which had 
been unanimously agreed to, and in which it was declared : 
" The Legislature of the State of Georgia, the immediate 
organ of the public will, think proper, at this all-important 
period of time, to address you. It is sensible, sir, that 
while the great powers of Europe are involved in a contest 
almost unexampled in magnitude, consequences and dura- 
tion, that the people of these shores, though happily situ- 
ated at a distance from the scene of carnage, yet being 
largely engaged in the pursuit of commerce, must from 
necessity suffer great privations from the want of a vent 
for the produce of a country fertile, extensive, and inhabited 
almost exclusively by agriculturists. But, sir, the citizens 
of this State, strong in their independence, and proud of 
their government, feel happy that a measure has been 
adopted which they conceive to be at once pacific and 
manly. They will never wish to see the lives and property 
of their brethren exposed to the insult or rapacity of a 
foreign power. And should this measure fail to produce 
the desired effect immediately, they will cheerfully submit 
to its continuance; ?J, on the other hand, our present em- 
harrassments should eventuate in a umr, they loill, inijro^ortion 
to their numler and resoiorces, give zealous aid to the govern- 
ment of their choice, confident that from the judicious man- 
agement of the public funds, and the easy pressure of 
taxation hitherto, a conflict could be maintained to every 
advantage which pecuniary means would bring in support 
of a people patriotic and brave." 



28 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. HI. 

To understand the peculiar difficulties which, embarrassed 
the United States in their relations to the European world, 
and which crippled their commerce, and finally led to the 
war of 1812, and to explain what follows in reference to 
those difficulties, it is proper to subjoin the following con- 
densed statement of the policy and conduct of England and 
France, then the leading powers and the principal belliger- 
ents of Europe. The statement is believed to be correct 
in its main features : 

" The battle of Trafalgar annihilated the united fleets of 
France and Spain ; and all the principal ports of the French 
empire, with a long extent of seacoast, were held in rigor- 
ous blockade by the British squadrons. To retaliate on the 
British, the Emperor ISTapoleon devised a new plan of 
attack, which he called the Continental System. The object 
of this scheme was to cut off all intercourse between the 
continent of Europe and Great Britain, and thus weaken 
England by destroying this portion of her commerce. On 
the 21st of November, 1806, Kapoleon, having defeated 
the Prussians, and entered Berlin, the capital of that king- 
dom, issued from the royal palace of that city his celebrated 
Berlin Decree^' : by which he declared the British isles in 
a state of blockade, and, consequently, that every American 
or other neutral vessel going to, or coming from, these isles, 
was subject to capture. The same decree provided that 
all merchandise belonging to England, or coming from its 
manufactories, or colonies, although belonging to neutrals, 
should be lawful prize on land. This provision was carried 
into eflect. General Armstrong, American minister at 
Paris, regarded the Berlin decree, at first, as inapplicable 
to American commerce, on account of the treaty then ex- 
isting between the United States and France, but in Octo- 
ber, 1807, in answer to his inquiry as to the eflect of the 
decree, the French minister of foreign relations informed 
him of his mistake. The condemnation of American vessels 
commenced in November following. The British govern- 
ment, in retaliation of Napoleon's Berlin decree, issued 

* Dated, " In our Imperial Camp, Berlin, Nov. 26, 1806,"— Bd. 



Chap. III.] THE EMBARGO. 29 

their famous Orders in Council, dated November 11, 180T. 
By these orders, all direct trade from America to any part 
of Europe at war with Great Britain, or which excluded 
the British flag, was totally prohibited. Goods, however, 
were allowed to be landed in England, and, after paying 
duties, might be re-exported to Europe. On the 17th of 
December succeeding, the orders in council were followed 
by the Milan Decree of Napoleon, which declared that 
every vessel that should submit to be searched by a British 
man-of-war, or which should touch at a British port, or 
should pay any impost whatever to the British government, 
should be denationalized, and subject to seizure and con- 
demnation. These edicts of the two belligerent powers 
were, of course, destructive to the principal part of the 
foreign commerce of the United States. American vessels 
trading directly with French ports, were liable to capture 
by British cruisers ; and if they touched at a British port, 
they were confiscated on arriving in France. The British 
orders in council operated with the most severity on 
American commerce, as through their powerful nav}^ the 
English possessed the means of enforcing them." 

The session of 1807-8 closed on 25th April, 1808. 

Early in the session of 1808-9, a resolution was offered, 
in the U. S. House of Representatives, to the effect that 
the act of the previous session, laying an embargo, and 
the supplementary acts, " ought to be immediately re- 
pealed." On the question whether the House would agree 
to consider the resolution, there were but nine votes in the 
negative — amongst them was that of George M. Troup. 
In explaining his vote, he said he felt himself bound at all 
times to treat with the greatest delicacy all motions and 
propositions of an ordinary nature. But there were times 
in which his feelings compelled him to depart from the or- 
dinary rule. This was one. He had voted against the 
consideration of the resolution because he would reject, 
with that dignity which it deserved, an abstract proposi- 
tion at this time to remove the embargo ; and because he 



30 LIFE OP GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. III. 

thought a prompt rejection would mark to the foreign 
world the temper of the country. He suggested, since it 
was to be discussed, that the discussion should be postponed 
a while, until time was given to digest the voluminous 
mass of documents laid before them. For in these docu- 
ments were contained the best arguments in favor of the 
embargo. 

Soon after this, the House Committee on Foreign Eela- 
tions, having made a report, submitted a series of resolu- 
tions, one of which was as follows : " Jxesolved, That the 
United States cannot, without a sacrifice of their rights, 
honor and independence, submit to the late edicts of Great 
Britain and France." 

The House being in committee of the whole, 
Mr. Troup said he was extremely happy to agree in one 
thing with the gentleman who had just sat down, (Mr. 
Eandolph) that the Southern had not suffered less by the 
operation of the embargo than the Eastern States ; but 
when, in differing from the gentleman from Massachusetts, 
(Mr. Quincy,) on a point of still greater importance, he 
was also compelled to differ from the honorable gentleman 
from Yirginia, he did so with the deepest regret. It has 
been said by the gentleman from Massachusetts, observed 
Mr. T., that for the last eleven months the country has 
suffered by this system of embargo the extreme of disgrace 
and humiliation, and the gentleman from Yirginia has 
called it a measure of degrading submission. Sir, it is not 
a measure of submission ; it is a measure of resistance, and 
of the most formidable resistance. Whatever may have 
been the object of the Executive in recommending the 
embargo, it has ever been supported by us as a measure of 
coercion — as a measure of justifiable retaliation. I contend 
that it is not submission. Acquiescence in the orders and 
decrees — submission to seizure and condemnation — would 
be submission to all intents and purposes; but that measure 
which keeps at home the ships and property which our 
enemies seek to capture on the high seas, is not submission, 
but resistance ; and the gentleman from Massachusetts will 



Chap. III.] SPEECH ON THE EMBARGO. 31 

find it so to his sorrow. Commerce, sir, is the life-blood of 
England ; it is the foundation of her wealth, her prosperity 
and her maritime grandeur. But the gentleman says we 
have retired from the highway of nations, and left our 
great rival free to navigate it. True, we have retired from 
the ocean ; we have left our rival free to navigate but very 
little more than between port and port of her own do- 
minions. We have given the finishing stroke to her 
exclusion from the commerce of the civilized world ; she 
has not one tittle of it left, other than what you yourselves 
would have if your embargo were raised to-morrow ; and 
your committee have told you what that is — a scanty, con- 
temptible commerce of seven millions of dollars. England 
lost one hundred millions when France shut the continent 
against her ; she lost fifty millions by the occlusion of your 
own ports ; and nothing of trade is left her but that she 
may drive with the native powers of Asia and Africa ; 
with Sweden, and, precariously, with Spain, Portugal, and 
their possessions. No more, then, of raising the embargo 
to carry on commerce, when, without a sacrifice of inde- 
pendence — without a dishonorable submission to the Orders 
in Council — we cannot carry on more than seven millions 
of commerce. I know it is said that the people of the 
Southern States are the enemies of foreign trade — that 
their spirit and their interests are anti-commercial. Sir, 
in this sentiment, which is of itself without foundation — 
nay, without even the shadow of foundation — is to be 
sought that jealousy which has given rise to so many evils, 
and from which such serious evils are yet to be appre- 
hended ; but, sir, it is a mean, pitiful, contemptible 
jealousy. The Southern States are not the enemies of 
commerce. Indeed, how can it be said of a people who 
raise seventy millions of pounds of cotton, and for which 
they have not a home market for ten millions, that they 
are the enemies of commerce ! No, sir ; they have, from 
the beginning of your government to the present day, 
sacrificed as much to the prosperity of commerce as any 
people of the Union. They have been at all times as ready 



32 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. III. 

to go to war for commerce — on the attack on the Chesa- 
peake they were even more forward to go to war for the 
honor and dignity of the flag than the people of the 
Eastern States. 

A little more than was said by my friend from Virginia, 
as to the comparative operation of the embargo on the 
Eastern and Southern States. Compare the operation of 
this measure by the proper test — the only true and correct 
one — the depreciation of the respective staples of those 
two sections of the Union. Let the gentleman from Mas- 
sachusetts state to the House what has been the deprecia- 
tion of his beef, pork, fish, cheese, butter, onions, potatoes, 
and cabbages, and I will tell him what has been the de- 
preciation of our great staples, cotton and rice. The 
ordinary market price of cotton is between eighteen and 
twent3'-two cents ; the embargo price is from ten to twelve. 
The ordinary price of rice is from five to six dollars ; the 
embargo price is from two to three. Our people are, 
besides, in proportion to their number, more in debt than 
the people of the Eastern States. 

But the gentleman from Massachusetts warns us against 
a perseverance in the system of embargo. A perseverance, 
according to the gentleman, is to be followed by open 
hostility to the laws. Sir, I dread no such hostility. We 
have no reason to dread it. It is altogether impossible that 
men who are actuated by the basest of human passions 
can make a serious movement in a revolution. No, sir ; I 
insist upon it, that we have no cause to fear the anti- 
embargo men of Massachusetts. One brave, independent, 
generous yeoman of Massachusetts, would drive half a 
dozen such fellows into the ocean. But, the truth is, the 
gentleman seems to have wholly mistaken the condition of 
his countrymen. He told us that he had suff*ered every- 
thing but famine ; that the distress and ruin were co-ex- 
tensive with the country. They could not or would not 
suffer longer. Yet, sir, the gentleman was not well seated, 
before his colleague (Mr. Bacon) rose, and with equal claim 
to veracity, and the same opportunity of forming a correct 



Chap. III.] SPEECH ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS. 33 

opinion, told yon tliat his lionovable colleagne had given a 
very high coloring to the picture ; that the distresses of the 
people were by no means as great as they were described ; 
and that if they were less prosperous and flourishing than 
before the embargo, they were far — very far —from the 
state of (nisery wliich his colleague had represented. 

b'ir, many of these observations have been made with 
extreme reluctance ; they have been extorted under cir- 
cumstances which must give pain to every American, but 
which cannot fail to kindle in him the liveliest indignation. 
No man can read without horror and disgust, in the papers 
of the day, the most treasonable and flagitious libel that 
ever disgraced our country — the anonymous publication 
circulated in Newburyport. 

Sir, it is remarkable that we have been so gradually 
familiarized with British outrages, and have at length be- 
come so completely reconciled to the most extravagant 
excesses of them, that what two years ago you would have 
been willing to go to war for, would now be considered a 
matter of too trifling importance to merit your attention, 
much less your resentment. Two years ago you were 
willing to go to war to limit the right of search ; you would 
have gone to war to prohibit the practice of impressment ; 
you would have gone to war to overturn the lawless sys- 
tem of blockade ; you would have gone to war for the 
colonial trade ; for the attack on the Chesapeake ; two 
years ago you would have gone to war for the Orders in 
Council ; and now that all these outrages, and more than 
these, have accumulated on your head, until you are bowed 
down to the earth, you are content to beg a little commerce 
of England ! You tell England, if she will be pleased to grant 
you a little trade, you will open your ports to her, and shut 
them against France ! This last, this humiliating overture, 
she rejects with indignation. You have no choice left, as 
your committee has reported, but between war and embargo. 
"VVe cannot go to war with one, without going to war with 
the other; because, the wrongs done by one are not less 
than the wrongs done by the other — unless, indeed you 
5 



34 I'IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. III. 

consider the shedding of innocent blood the greatest of all 
possible wrongs. 

I know this measnre of embargo has been condemned, 
loudly condemned ; but only by men who propose to re- 
seat themselves in power by an appeal to the feelings and 
interests of the commnnity. In one part of the country 
this appeal has been made with effect. The avaricious 
have been corrupted, the ignorant have been duped. In all 
countries there are the avaricious and the ignorant ; and the 
passion of the one and the credulity of the other have been 
wielded with success by the anti-embargo men. Sir, the 
people have been led to believe that a great commerce 
could be carried on under the orders and decrees, when in 
fact no commerce could be carried on without compro- 
mitting the honor of the nation. They have been led to 
believe that a commerce could bo carried on without haz- 
arding the peace of the country, when in fact no commerce 
could be carried on without involving the country in war ; 
and whilst the great object of the government was to pro- 
tect commerce, the embargo was said to aim a deadly blow 
at commerce. It is by such misrepresentations that the 
noisy enemies of the embargo out of doors have been 
deluded and corrupted. And are these the people to whom 
we are called on to turn a respectful and deferential ear? 
— the merest Shj'-locks — men who cry out, away with your 
honor, your independence, your neutrality — they are all 
stuff — give us gold ! — British merchants, British agents, 
and malcontent Americans — the depraved of the cities, and 
the ignorant of the country — men who are ready to sacri- 
fice the honor and independence of the nation for a little 
trade in codfish and potash ! If we are thus degenerate — 
if we are thus fallen in thirty short years, it is high time 
to abandon your republican system of government. Sir, 
will posterity believe that this very people, who thirty 
years ago magnanimously offered up their lives and for- 
tunes for the acquisition of independence, are now prepared 
to sacrifice that very independence to their avarice ! Will 
posterity believe that this same people, in one short year. 



Ohap. ni.j SPEECH ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS. .3§ 

forgot the affair of the Chesapeake? That they were ready 
to shake hands with the murderers and robbers of their 
^countrymen ? I will not, for myself, assent to such a base 
barter of honor for gold. No, sir ! If it has come to this 
— if we cannot for a year or two years endure the priva- 
tions incident to a measure of embargo, if we cannot exist 
without the luxuries of life, notwithstanding the most im- 
perious calls of honor and of duty, we are unworthy the 
blessings we enjoy — we have lost our virtue, and are ripe 
for the dynasty of the Bonapartes, or any other dynasty ; 
and whether you are conquered by France into miserable 
servitude to-morrow, or corrupted to sell your country to 
England, is not worth a reflection. This accursed avarice 
will ruin you. 

Sir, it is not to such a people as those — and 1 trust in 
God a majority of the people of New England are very 
difi'erent — that I would appeal to test the correctness of the 
measure of embargo. Were I disposed to test its correct- 
ness by its popularity, I would appeal to the people of 
Virginia, too honorable to be corrupted, too enlightened to 
be duped. I would ask them what they thought of the 
embargo, and they would answer with an almost unani- 
mous voice — they would go further — they would be ready 
to support it with their lives and fortunes. 

You have done everything for commerce — you have ne- 
gotiated for commerce — you have jeoparded the peace of 
the country for commerce — you have passed an embargo 
to protect commerce — and commerce is the first to abandon 
you. God forbid that I should speak thus of the whole 
mercantile community. I have seen too many instances on 
this floor of noble and magnanimous sacrifice of private 
interest to the public weal ; they are not the Smiths, or the 
Grays, or the Crowninshields of whom I speak. 

If the embargo were raised to-morrow, none would trade 
but men of desperate character and bankrupt fortune — the 
real bona fide American merchant would not venture a ship 
at sea ; and where would they trade ? Why, to be sure, 
they might drive a trade in beef and pork and flour to the 



36 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. HI. 

West Indies, and some of our cotton and rice and tobacco 
would find their way to England, if the French privateers 
did not catch them ; but the market would soon be over."un 
— it would be no better than the home market; and where 
would you trade to besides? If you are determined to pay 
the ninepence per pound tribute, for permission to re- 
export your cotton to the continent, the French decrees 
would take it; and, if they did not, the price of the article 
would be so enhanced by the tribute, that the market of 
the continent would be lost to you. 

Permission to arm is tantamount to a declaration of war, 
and the people of this country want peace, as long as they 
can preserve it with honor. And do you think, sir, we are 
ready to plunge headlong into a ruinous war, naked and 
unarmed, to gratify a few bankrupt commercial specula- 
tors ? It is easy to declare war ; it is more difficult, under 
present circumstances, to maintain peace, and it is most 
difficult of all to wage a successful war. Sir, beware ! It 
is the object of the gentleman from Massachusetts and his 
friends, to lead you, step by step, into a war, and if he can, 
into an unpopular war, which the moment you cease to 
conduct with effect, you are ruined, and he and his friends 
are exalted. To such an event, deplorable as it would be, 
I could be reconciled if I believed the gentleman and his 
friends would govern in the true spirit of the constitution ; 
but liberty has been hunted down in the Old World — there 
is scarce a remnant of it left, save in America — here it 
is sustained by the ruling party ; and, sir, the moment this 
party ceases to rule. Republicanism is gone, and with it the 
hopes of all good men forever. On this account I depre- 
cate such an event. 

It would appear to me from the tenor of the gentleman's 
remarks, (Mr. Quincy.) that he wants war with France 
and alliance with England. If this be the fact, the gen- 
tleman is not consistent. If he is really as much afraid of 
the gigantic power of France as he affects to be, (and I 
must confess, for my part, I am very much afraid of it.) 
assuredly it is not policy to provok e France—it is our policy 



Chap. III.] SPEECH ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS. 37 

to keep out of tlie way of both monsters as long as we can, 
and to husband our resources. And what would avail an 
alliance with England ? You could only furnish men to be 
slaughtered on the continent. I can tell the gentleman 
from Massachusetts in what he would much better exem- 
plify both his patriotism and consistency — in union, in 
uniting to call into activity the resources of the nation for 
its defence — in organizing and arming and disciplining ; 
and, what is not less desirable, in adopting a system of 
finance, which would not fail you in any exigency ; in short, 
in pursuing the course in which you are, which the soundest 
policy points to as the safest and the best, the course of 
impartial neutrality, if, indeed, neutrality has anything to 
do with it. 

As to the embargo, so much has been said, both in and 
out of doors, in its justification, that I will forbear to touch 
it. It is only necessary to observe that it has been sup- 
ported, and will be continued, as a measure of security and 
of just retaliation: As a measure of security, it keeps the 
property at home, which, but for it, would have enriched 
your enemies ; as a measure of retaliation, it would have 
had its effect, but for the anti-embargo men of Massachu- 
setts. If the gentleman will co-operate to make it efiicient, 
he will soon find the great mercantile politicians of Eng- 
land, from Anderson down to McCall Bedford, have not 
been mistaken in the belief that this country can vitally 
affect the colonial and manufacturing interests of that, by 
an embargo system. 

As to a declaration of war against France and Great 
Britain, and the policy of making it immediately, no local 
considerations should be permitted to enter into our view 
of it ; but this much is to be said, that the Southern people 
are much more interested in raising the embargo than 
going to war; by the first, they would find a vent for a 
small proportion of their staples; by the latter, they could 
get nothing but taxes and fighting. The anti-embargo 
mer\ of Massachusetts would not make more by the first 
than ourselves, and by the last they would make nothing 



38 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. III. 

more than their privateers would make for them ; but the 
great object is to postpone the evil. 

One word, before I sit down, as to what fell from the 
gentleman from New York. He proposes to repeal the 
embargo in relation to Spain and Portugal. Sir, is the 
political condition of those States characterized by a per- 
manency and stability which would warrant commercial 
connection with them ? Trade with the Junta of Seville — 
a mere political ephemeron — a being of a day ! Sir, I wish 
the Spanish patriots success, with all my heart, but success 
is impossible. Ten thousand to one, that whilst I am 
speaking, this same Junta of Seville is imploring clemency 
at the footstool of the great usurper. Indeed, sir, if we are 
bound to consider this people of any definite description, 
we are to consider them rather as French subjects than 
Spanish patriots, for the only official paper in relation to 
them is the instrument of abdication and renunciation by 
which this unhappy people have been transferred 07er, like 
a flock. of sheep, to the Emperor Napoleon, and by the 
very men for whose rights of empire they are said to be 
contending. 

The question was taken, the next day, on the resolution 
under consideration, and it was passed without a division ; 
but it is evident that the debate did not turn upon the resolu- 
tion simply, and that the vote determined nothing in regard 
to the relative strength of the two parties — one, the Repub- 
lican, ready to support the administration in all just 
measures to vindicate the honor of the country ; the other, 
the Federal, bound by no sympathy for the party in power, 
or its leader, Mr. Jefferson, and ready at any moment to 
seize a favorable opportunity for bringing the administra- 
tion and its friends into odium with the people. 

The following letter, never before published, from Col. 
Tr6up to Charles Harris, Esq., will show the views of the 
former on our foreign relations, even before the meeting 
of Congress in 1807 : 



Chap. III.] VIEWS ON OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS. 39 

Washington, Idtli Oct., 1807. 

Dear Harris : This morning I paid a visit to the Presi- 
dent. As we were alone, he was communicative. The 
substance of what passed, so far as I am at liberty, I give 
you. 

Nothing decisive of the question of peace or war can 
transpire previously to the return of the Eevenge. She is 
not expected short of a month, as even her arrival in Eng- 
land is not known to the government. England flatters 
our ministers, and they speak of her favorable disposition. 
She disavows absolutely any authority to Berkeley, and 
talks of atonement. But, my friend, the chances of war, 
notwithstanding, are beyond all comparison greater than 
those of peace. Our Spanish negotiation, which, during 
the absence of the Emperor, was suspended, is actively re- 
newed, and before the end of the session the government 
has reason to look ^to a satisfactory issue. Heretofore, 
Spain has made no advances. I may conjecture that 
Bonaparte will speak for us in an audible and imperative 
tone.* 

I give you nothing, perhaps, that you have not antici- 
pated ; but as it is stated on authority, it will afford you 
more solid foundation for your political lucubrations. This 
horrid scrawl is intended for Charlton, the Bullochs and 
Morel, as well as yourself, when you get together over 
some brandy and water. Have been sick, and can't write 
you all. 

Your friend sincerely, 

Geo. M. Troup. 

* The President has nothing to do with this last sentence 
— remember ! 

To Gen. D. B. Mitchell, he wrote during the session, on 
the same subject, as follows : 

Washington, 18th Feb'ry, 1808. 
Dear Sir: * ^ * * 

The House is this morning occupied in providing for the 
raising of several regiments (9) on a war establishment. 



40 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. III. 

Mr. Rose's negotiation, it is understood, is brought to a 
clo=e, at least for tlie present, and the Congress will in 
future be engaged as if war is inevitable. We have a 
French decree declaring England blockaded by sea and 
land. Whether it be genuine or forged is not certain. 
Very respectfully, dear sir, your friend, 

Geo. M. Troup. 

Washington, 28th March, 1808. 

Dear Sir : Your favor, of the 13th inst., came to hand 
last night. The tenor of the King's speech, which reached 
us at the moment of the rupture of Rose's negotiation, 
gave rise to but one opinion among the friends of our 
country — that war was inevitable. The only question 
seemed to be how we should wage it. I make no doubt in 
such event the defensive mode would be adopted in the 
first instance — prohibiting intercourse, preparing ourselves 
for attack, and organizing a force for the reduction of the 
British Provinces on the first off'ensive act of the enemy. 

Three days since, dispatches were received from Mr. 
Pinkney, stating that the ministry had lowered their tone ; 
and indeed, my friend, I sincerely believe if we have cour- 
age and perseverance, the bully will retreat from his high 
ground and give us by honorable treaty what the law of 
nations has decreed. And yet should such concessions set- 
tle us down in a permanent peace with that country, it is 
very questionable whether France would not take umbrage. 
The conduct of the Emperor of late is calculated at least to 
put us on our guard. It is known he is spoiled by fortune, 
that he is overbearing, and perhaps that he aims at universal 
empire. Be it so or otherwise, it becomes this government 
to act as an independent nation, uncontrolled by anything 
but a sense of justice and moderation. Could you see the 
whole ground, you would think the crisis as ditficult as that 
of '77. Indeed, to think so you will require little more 
than the documents the publication of which is permitted. 

The fate of the Bill authorizing a sale of arms to the 
State, is at least doubtful, and it is to be feared that if 



Chap. III.] SPEECH ON THE ARMY BILL. 41 

passed it will be under such modification as to render it of 
little importance to Georgia. (We may get 5,000 stand.) 
We were obliged in the House to go upon the beggarly 
system, which I did not like, and which of course gave a 
fine field to the Yazoo men and the rest. The Army bill is 
passed to its third reading. Congress has been occupied a 
week in reading the documents accompanying the Presi- 
dent's communication. We may adjourn in three weeks. 
Your friend, respectfully, Gko. M. Troup. 

Gen. D. B. Mitchell, Savannah. 

The Army bill, to which reference is above made, ])eing 
under consideration, 4th April, 1808, 

Mr. Troup said, that after the very eloquent and patriotic- 
speech of his friend from Virginia, (Mr. Kandolph,) he felt 
it doubly incumbent on him to justify the vote he should 
give, by a few observations. I really cannot, said he, for 
my part, perceive, with the gentleman from Virginia, that 
a bright prospect of peace has suddenly opened upon this 
country. My views of things at this moment are very 
different ; it really seems to me that the clouds are gather- 
ing about us darker and thicker every day. It must be, 
from the nature of things, extremely difficult to determine 
whether we shall have peace or war, because that event, I 
trust, depends on powers not to be controlled by us. But, 
however difficult it be to determine it, v/hat security have 
we that wo shall not be attacked ? Are we certain that an 
act of hostility against this country will ever be preceded 
by a solemn and formal declaration of war { Xo, sir, all 
experience is against it. The Spanish frigates were at- 
tacked, and there was no declaration of war — nay, they 
were attacked in the midst of negotiation for peace, or 
rather in the midst of friendly negotiation ; Copenhagen 
was attacked and in flames, and there was no declaration 
of war.''' Recollect, when your measure of embargo begins 
to press hard upon the British colonies ; when from that 

* The reader will understand these references to be to the capture of Spanish Treasure 
Ships by the British, in 1S04, and the bomburdment and burning of Copenhagen, by the 
same power, in 1807. — Ed. 

6 



42 t'IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. III. 

salutary measure the colonies are reduced to the last ex- 
treme of wretchedness and want, the tigress will attack 
you for food for her young ; it is not unlikely that she may 
steal upon yon in the dead of night, and treat you as at 
Paoli. And pray, sir, what security have you against that 
Power which a gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. D. R. 
Williams,) so appropriately called the tiger? What secu- 
rit}^ have you against France ? Do you expect to sleep in 
profound tranquillity because Britain interposes between 
you and France her thousand ships ? It would be idle 
and irrational to expect it. You had an instance, the 
other day, of the Eochefort squadron making its way in the 
face of the whole British navy, and, it is said, with five 
thousand troops on board, who might, for aught you could 
have done, be drawn up on your frontier. 

But what is to be done in the present crisis of affairs '. 
Is the nation to remain undefended merely because gentle- 
men entertain prejudices against a particular species of 
defence ? On what physical force will you rely for de- 
fence '. You can only choose between the militia and a 
standing army ; and when, the other day, it was proposed, 
by an honorable gentlenum from Virginia, to class and 
re-organize the militia, you refused to do so. And it is 
well known that the present defective system of militia, in 
our quarter of the country at least, is good for nothing. 
Ko man has more confidence in the militia than myself; I 
consider them the great and cheap defence of the nation ; 
but you must class, arm and equip them, and, when they are 
so armed, classed and equipped, purge this country of that 
refuse of humanity, a British faction and a French faction 
— if, indeed, there be any such — and your militia will de- 
fend you against the world. 

The jealousy of standing armies is characteristic of our 
people ; it results essentially from their habits and political 
institutions; but this jealousy existing only in times of 
peace, is, in a season of public danger, always succeeded 
by that policy which reposes the safety of the nation in 
discipline, iu habits of obedience, and in concert of opera- 



Chap. III.] SPEECH ON THE ARMY BILL. 43 

tion. Xo man ever complained of a standing army when 
his country was invaded. No man complained of a stand- 
ing army during the Revolution, though many complained, 
and causelessly complained, of the militia. The truth is, 
that the evil of standing armies is always effectually guarded 
when the regular force bears a very small proportion to the 
armed militia. By adopting such policy, by so proportion- 
ing your regular force to your militia, you will have no- 
thing to do but to command it to lay down its arms, and 
it is done. 

Circumstances render it necessary, at this moment, to 
create a war establishment, not so much for the purpose of 
defence against invasion, an event, perhaps, not so seriously 
to be apprehended, as was well observed by my friend 
from Virginia, but to preserve peace by preparing for war. 
It is at this time, and under such circumstances as the pres- 
ent, the maxim applies, to preserve peace or avert war, you 
must prepare for war. 

As to confidence In men, uiidej- wiium the force is to be 
wielded, and of wdiich so much has been said, I will only 
observe, that I either have veiy great confidence or no con- 
fidence at all, and a sufiiciency of it, on the present occasion, 
to believe that it wall be neither niisdirected nor abused ; 
and I repose this confidence the more readily, as I am aware 
the army will be disbanded with the same facility it has 
been created, when the occasion for it ceases. 

Although somewhat out of its chronological order, we 
have here inserted this speech eutire, as it exhibits the 
foresight of its anthor, and is a just compliment to his 
sagacity and his patriotism. Three days afterwards, the 
bill passed the House by a large majority ; and, having 
passed the Senate with the House amendments, was signed 
by the President on 12th April, ISOS. 

On the 9th of January, 1801), the tSenate amendments to 
the bill from the House for employing an additional num- 
ber of seamen and marines, being before the House, 



44 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. III. 

Mr. Troup said he rose but for the purpose of stating 
facts which struck him as being applicable to the subject 
before the House. He referred chiefly to an extract of a 
letter written to himself, and published in the paper of to- 
day. [Mr. T. then read the extract which appeared in the 
National Intelligencer on the !Hh instant.] In addition to 
these facts,* letters had been received, in the course of this 
morning, containing further particulars, which he begged 
leave to state to the House. After the officer (commander 
of a British armed vessel,) had been forced on board his 
vessel, and while lying in our waters and within our juris- 
diction, he had fired several shots at pilot-boats passing 
and repassing, had been very abusive, and threatened the 
town with what he called yengeance ; and, in addition to 
these facts, letters had reached Savannah from Liverpool, 
giving satisfactory information that vessels of fifteen or 
twenty guns had been fitted out for the purpose of forcing 
a cotton trade with South Carolina and Georgia. This in- 
formation, Mr. T. said, came from unquestionable authority. 
And it was because he was unwilling that the people of this 
country should longer submit to the abuse of British naval 
officers ; because he was unwilling that they should be ex- 
posed to the insolence of ever}'- British commissioned puppy 
who chose to insult us ; because he was unwilling that 
armed vessels should force a cotton trade, when every man 
knew that nine-tenths of the people of Georgia would treat 
as traitors the violators of the embargo ; it was for this 
reason that he was disposed to vote for the amendments from 
the Senate. The great objection which had been taken to 
them was the expense which they would produce. Econ- 
omy, Mr. T. said, was a good thing in time of peace ; but 
if this contracted spirit of economy predominated in our 
war councils, if we were forced into a war, so help him 
God, he would rather at once tamely submit our honor and 

* The affair of tlio British war brig Sandwich is liere referred to. Having anchored 
off Tybee, two of her officers came up to Savannah, and wore imraediately ordered off. 
because of the violation of the proclamation of the President, interdicting our harbors and 
waters to all British armed vessels. The vessel reluctantly put to sea; but, before doing so. 
tired several shots at a pilot-bnat in the harbor, and committed other outrages. — Ed. 



Chap. III.] THE TYBEE OUTRAGE-INCREASE OF NAVY. 45 

independence than maintain them in this economical way. 
If we went to war, we ought not to adopt little measures for 
the purpose of executing them with little means ; neither 
should we refuse to adopt great measures because they 
could not be executed but with great means. It was very 
true that, in war as well as in peace, calculation to a certain 
extent was necessary ; but, if they once resolved on an 
object, it must be executed at whatever expense. He was 
no advocate for standing armies or navies, generally speak- 
ing ; but, in discharging his duties here, he must be gov- 
erned by the circumstances of every case which presented 
itself for his decision, and then ask himself, Is it wise, 
politic and prudent to do this or omit that ? He said he 
would never go back to yesterday to discover what he 
had then said or done, in order to ascertain what he should 
now do or say. Political conduct must depend on circum- 
stances. What was right yesterday might be wrong today. 
Nay, what was right at the moment he rose to address the 
House, might, ere this, be palpably wrong. Conduct de- 
pended on events, which depended on the folly or caprice 
of men ; and, as they changed, events would change. It 
might have been a good doctrine long ago that this country 
ought to have a navy competent to cope with a detachment 
of the British navy ; it might have been good doctrine then, 
but was shocking doctrine now. 

At that time England had to contend with the navies of 
Russia, Denmark, France, Holland, Spain, &c. Now, 
England was sole mistress of the ocean. To tight her, ship 
to ship and man to man, (and it was impossible that gentle- 
men could think of lighting her otherwise, if they fought her 
at all,) we must build up a huge navy at an immense ex- 
pense. We must determine to become less agricultural 
and more commercial ; to incur a debt of five hundred or 
a thousand millions of dollars, and all the loans and taxes 
attendant on such a system, and all the corruption attend- 
ant on them. He should as soon think of embarking an 
hundred thousand men for the purpose of attacking France 
at her threshold, as of building so many ships to oppose 



46 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. III. 

the British navy. It was out of the question ; no rational 
man could think of it. But that was not now the question. 
It was, whether we would call into actual service the little 
navy we possessed. It was not even a question whether 
we would have a navy at all or not. If that were the 
question, he would not hesitate to say that even our present 
political condition required a navy to a certain extent, to 
protect our commerce against the Barbary Powers in peace, 
and in time of war for convoys to our merchantmen. He 
only meant a few fast-sailing frigates, such a navy as we 
have at present, for the purpose of harassing the commerce 
of our enemies also. He therefore thought our present 
naval force ought to be put in service. As far as the ap- 
propriation ($400,000,) would go, it would be employed ; 
but if Congress should hereafter see cause to countermand 
or delay the preparation, they would have it in their power 
to do so by refusing a further appropriation. 

In perfect consonance Avith the foregoing, were his views 
in regard to the Gunboat system, which had been recom- 
mended by President Jefterson. The same subject being 
before the House, on 11th January, 1809, 

Mr. Troup said he regretted exceedingly that he was 
under the necessity of again troubling the House, but he 
felt himself bound, in some measure, to state more particu- 
larly his reasons for voting for the bill, and to reply to 
some cogent objections made from a quarter of the House 
which he much respected. He stated anew the reasons 
which he had given why the United States should have a 
small naval force. He thought it indispensable at this 
time to man and equip our little navy, not for the one or 
the other general reason in its fiivor which he before stated, 
but to protect from violence and insult the territory of the 
United States ; that territory which gentlemen in this 
House were so fond of calling the territory of the good old 
United States — he meant the marine league from the shore 
— as sacred and inviolable as any spot of earth within our 
limits. It was for the purpose of protecting this part of 



Chap. Ill] VIEWS ON THE GUNBOAT SYSTEM. 47 

our territory, for removing those cruisers which are com- 
petent to blockade the mouths of our rivers, that he wished 
this navy to be equipped. Gentlemen said the gunboats 
were competent to the protection of our harbors. Mr. T. 
acknowledged it ; he said he did believe that the invention 
of man never devised a more competent system than gun- 
boats, co-operating with fortifications, for the protection of 
our ports and harbors, ]3ut they were calculated to act only 
on shoals tind in smooth waters. '"•■ They were not fit for 
any other species of service ; they could not stand the winds 
and the waves, the billows and the tempests. And notwith- 
standing our ports and harbors might well be defended by 
these gunboats, they were not competent to the purpose 
for which these frigates were to be manned, to prevent 
blockades of our own waters. [The rest of this speech is 
omitted for want of room.] 

We cannot better conclude this chapter than ]>y referring, 
briefly, to the position which Col. Troup occupied as a 
public man, even before betook his seat in the House of 
Kepresentatives, on 26th October, 1807. Twelve days be- 
fore, as has been seen by his letter to Mr. Harris, he is 
found in close, if not familiar, conversation with the Presi- 
dent, Mr. Jefferson, on the subject of our foreign relations 
— then the absorbing question of the day. He had then 
just completed his twenty-seventh year, had not entered 
upon his Congressional duties, and it was no small com- 
pliment to have received, in advance, the confidence of 
so sagacious a statesman as the then chief magistrate of 
the Union. 

The second session of the tenth Congress terminated, 
and the Congress itself expired, on 3d March, 1809. 

The next chapter will be devoted to Col. Troup's opposi- 
tion to the schemes of the Yazoo speculators. 

* For the reasons which urged Mr. Jefferson to recommend this species of defence, 
see his special message of February 10th, 1807. Although much ridiculed by his oppo- 
nents, at the time, experience has proved its cfflciency, both in this country and Europe; 
as a means of defence.— Ed. 



48 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IV. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Yazoo Fraud. — Claims grotcing out of it, he/ore Congress. — 
Course and Speeches of CoL Troup thereon. 

It is necessary to go back somewhat, in the order of 
time, to consider tlie course of events flowing from an in- 
famous fraud upon the people of Georgia, a brief statement 
of which we have already given. It is pleasant to reflect 
that although the escutcheon of the State was for a while 
tarnished by the bribery and corruption which attempted 
the alienation of an immense territory, for a consideration 
almost nominal, yet the people, rising in their strength, 
and with an honest indignation, rescued the character of 
the State from the disgrace which cupidity and corrupt 
speculation had essayed. Whilst the honest man would 
desire to turn his face from the subject, with loathing, still 
it is one so interwoven with the history of the country, and 
especially of the State of Georgia, that no historian can 
altogether pass it over, and no biographer of George M. 
Troup ought to do it. In his detestation of the fraud, he 
stood second to none ; in efibrt and service against it, no 
man did more than he, unless we except General James 
Jackson. Like the record of the transaction which was 
burned with " fire from heaven," * it could be wished that 
the history of it had perished from the mind of man : 
but, like all monuments of human folly and human crime, 
it stands alike the memorial of wickedness and the beacon 
of warning against avarice. 

About the time of the passage of the corrupt Act, the 
speculators engaged in the fraud deposited in the treasury 
the sum of five hundred thousand dollars, being the amount 

* Until recently, the writer never heard a doubt expressed, that, on the occasion of 
the destruction of the record of the Yazoo Act, fire was kindled by a burning glass. All 
tradition confirms this idea; and whilst it may bo true that the ordinary means of apply- 
ing fire were used, on that occasion; yet there seems to be no reason to doubt that, 
during the solemnities of the occasion, and as expressive of public detestation of the Yazoo 
fraud, the sun-glass waa also used.— Ed. 



Chap, IV.] YAZOO FRAUD. 49 

of money consideration for wliieli the grants were to issue. 
By a statement made to the Legislature, in 1813, by Gov. 
Mitchell, it appears that " the Yazoo Deposit was origi- 
nated by five hundred thousand dollars and paid into our 
treasury by certain companies of men, in consideration of 
grants which they received from the State for a large tract of 
our western territory, since ceded by Georgia to the United 
States. This transaction took place in the winter of 1Y94-. 
At the following session of the Legislature, in the winter of 
1795, the grants issued to those companies were declared 
null and void, and provision was made for the repayment 
of the money to all those who "fehould call at the treasury 
and produce sufficient evidence of the amount paid by 
them. Under these laws, many persons, as well original 
grantees as those called sub-shareholders, claimed and re- 
ceived from our treasury three hundred and ten thousand 
six hundred and ninety-five dollars, 13 10-12 cents, part of 
the original five hundred thousand, leaving a balance of 
one hundred and eighty -four thousand seven hundred and 
sixteen dollars, forty-seven and a half cents, which is the 
amount now in our treasury, subject to some deduction for 
guard expenses, &c." 

In 1798 Georgia adopted a new constitution, by the 
twenty-third section of the first article of which the boun- 
daries of the State were declared and defined as stated in 
the beginning of this work ; and the said section proceed, 
ed to say : 

" And this convention doth further declare and assert 
that all the territory without the present temporary line 
and within the limits aforesaid, is now of right the pro- 
perty of the free citizens of this State, and held by them 
in sovereignty, inalienable but by their consent. Provided 
nevertheless, that nothing herein contained shall be construed 
so as to prevent a sale to, or contract with, the United States, 
by the Legislature of this State, of and for all or any part 
of the western territory of this State, lying westward of 
the river Chattahoochee, on such terms as may be benefi- 
cial to both parties ; and may procure an extension of set- 
tlement, and an extinguishment of Indian claims, in and to 
the vacant territory of this State, to the east and north of 



50 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [CHAr. IV. 

the said river Chattahoochee, to which territory such power 
of contract or sale, by tlie Legislature, shall not extend : 
And provided also, the Legislature may give its consent to 
the establishment of one or more governments westward 
thereof ; but monopolies of land by individuals being con- 
trary to the spirit of our free government, no sale of terri- 
tory of this State, or any part thereof, -shall take place to 
individuals, or private companies, unless a county or coun- 
ties shall have been first laid off, including such territory, 
and the Indian rights shall have been extinguished thereto." 
The twenty-fourth section of the same article declared '- 
" The foregoing section of this article having declared 
the common rights of the free citizens of this State in and 
to all the territory without the present temporary boundary 
line, and within the limits of this State, thereby defined, 
by which the contemplated purchases of certain companies 
of a considerable portion thereof are become constitution- 
ally void, and justice and good faith require that the State 
should not detain a consideration for a contract which has 
failed ; the Legislature at their next session shall make pro- 
vision, by law, for returning to any person or persons who 
has or have bona fide deposited moneys for such purchases 
in the treasury of this State : Provided, that the same 
shall not have been drawn therefrom in terms of the act 
passed tlie thirteenth of February, one thousand seven hun- 
dred and ninety-six, commonly called the rescinding act, 
or the appropriation laws of the years one thousand seven 
hundred and ninety-six, and one thousand seven hundred 
and ninety-seven ; nor shall the moneys, paid for such pur- 
chases, ever be deemed a part of the funds of this State, or 
be liable to appropriations as such ; but until such moneys 
be drawn from the treasury, they shall be considered alto- 
gether at the risk of the persons who have deposited the 
same," &c., &c. 

It was evident, then, that the Yazoo speculators were cut 
ofi" from all hope of profit from any act of the government 
of Georgia ; but, to put the matter beyond all dispute, the 
Legislature of 1798-9 not only passed an act to carry into 
efiect the said twenty-fourth section of the third article of 
the constitution, for refunding the deposits in the treasury, 
but, on the 10th day of June, 1802, an act was passed, "to 
ratify and confirm certain articles of agreement and cession 
entered into on the 2-lth day of April, 1802, between the 



Chap. IV.] YAZOO FRAUD. 51 

commissioners of the State of Georgia on the one part, and 
the commissioners of the United States on the other part," 
by which the State of Georgia ceded to the United States 
all her territory not included in the present limits of the 
State, but including the fraudulent grants to the Yazoo 
companies, and to which act of cession we shall have occa- 
sion more particularly to refer when we come to speak of 
the Creek difficulties. The consideration money to be paid 
for this cession, was one million two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars ; besides which, it was stipulated in the 
second condition of said articles of cession, " that all per- 
sons who, on tlie 22d day of October, 1795, were actual 
settlers within the territory thus ceded, shall be confirmed 
in all the grants legally and fully executed prior to that 
day, by the former British government of West Florida, or 
by the government of Spain, and in the claims which may 
be derived from any actual survey or settlement made 
under the act of the State of Georgia, entitled ' An act 
for laying out a district of land situate on the river Mis- 
sissippi, and within the bounds of this State, into a county 
to be called Bourbon,' passed the 7th day of February, 
1785 ; " and in the third condition it was further provided, 
" that the United States, for the period and until the end 
of one year after the assent of Georgia to the boundary es- 
tablished by this agreement, shall have been declared, 
may, in such manner as not to interfere with the above 
mentioned j)ayment to the State of Georgia, nor with the 
grants herein before recognized, dispose of or appropriate 
a portion of the said lands not exceeding five millions of 
acres, or the proceeds of the said five millions of acres, or 
any part thereof, for the purpose of satisfying, quieting or 
compensating for any claims other than those herein before 
recognized, which may be made to the said lands or to any 
part thereof. It being fully nnderstood that if an act of 
Congress making such disposition or appropriation, shall 
not be passed into a law within the above mentioned period 
of one year, the United States shall not be at liberty there- 
after to cede any part of the said lands, on account of claims 



52 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IV. 

which may be laid to the same, other than those recognized 
by the preceding condition, nor to compensate for the 
same ; and in case of any such cession or compensation, the 
present cession of Georgia to the right of the soil thus 
ceded or compensated for, shall be considered as null and 
void, and the lands thus ceded or compensated for, shall 
revert to the State of Georgia." 

We have deemed it proper to premise so much, in order 
that the course of Col. Troup in the TJ. S. House of Eepre- 
sentatives, in regard to the Yazoo speculation, might be 
better understood. But it is necessary to make a further ex- 
planation. Some of the speculators, or their assignees, 
having, after said act of cession, carried the matter before 
Congress, the Legislature, on the 23d day of November, 
1807, passed the following preamble and resolutions : 

" Whereas, in the year seventeen hundred and ninety- 
five, as will be recollected with emotions of indignation by 
every virtuous citizen of this State, a combination of in- 
fluential and moneyed men, succeeded, hjhTihery and cor- 
ruption^ in obtaining the passage of an act, conveying the 
right of this State in a well known portion of the western 
country, called YAZOO, to several companies of purchasers ; 
and whereas thesucceedirig Legislature, duly convinced of 
the flagitious agency which had procured the act aforesaid, 
virtuously determined, by a rescinding law, to prohibit all 
contracts, conveyances and grants originating in that fraud, 
from being carried into effect, it solemnly becomes this 
Legislature to support and preserve consistent the reputa- 
tion of this State, by denying the statement of a band of 
speculators, combined from New Hampshire to the Missis- 
sippi, to embezzle the funds, either of this State or the 
United States, and to riot on the profits of an extensive tract 
of country, in alleging, falsely^ that the State of Georgia 
contemplated in the articles of cession to the United States 
of her western territory, in eighteen hundred and two, amy 
cowfpromise of the Yazoo claims in any ivay whatever. And 
inasmuch as it is important to the decision of Congress on 
this subject, and greatly so to the dignity and justice of 
the State of Georgia, that the truth as it is in this matter 
should be fully and unequivocally defined ; it is therefore 
unanimously 

Resolved, by the Senate and House of Bepreseniatives of 



Chap. IV.] YAZOO FRAUD. 53 

tlia State of Georgia, in General Assemhly met^ That they 
have viewed and still view wnth abhorrence, the attempt 
made by a set of nnprinciiDled men, commonly known by 
the appellation of Yazoo men, to corrupt a majority of the 
Legislature of this State in the year 1795 ; which attempt 
was rendered abortive by the virtue of the succeeding 
Legislature. 

Resolved, That it never was the intention of the Legis- 
lature of this State, when they ratified certain articles of 
agreement and cession entered into by commissioners ap- 
pointed by the State of Georgia and the United States, to 
evince any desire to compromise claims that originated 
in fraud, and which were rendered invalid by State 
sovereignty. 

Resolved, That the thanks of the Senate and House of 
Representatives of the State of Georgia be given to John 
Randolph, member of Congress from the State of Yirginia, 
and the late majority of the ninth Congress, for their vir- 
tuous and manly opposition to a compromise, which would 
in their opinion equally compromit the dignity of the gov- 
ernment of the United States, and the sovereignty of this 
State. 

Resolved, That the Governor be requested to transmit 
copies of the foregoing resolutions to Mr. Randolph, to the 
Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the 
Attorney General of the United States." 

The claimants having therefore no hope of assistance 
from the State, applied to the federal government for relief. 
It is not necessary to trace in detail the rise or history of 
these applications to Congress. It will appear in the course 
of this history that the claims were pressed with pertinacity, 
and resisted with energy at every step. The commission- 
ers of the United States, who had negotiated with the 
authorities of Georgia for the cession of the w^estern terri- 
tory, had, in their report to Congress as early as February, 
1803, recommended an adjustment of the claims, and stated 
that " various equitable considerations, which may be urged 
in favor of most of the present claimants, render it expedi- 
ent to enter into a compromise on reasonable terms." But 
they were doomed to encounter violent opposition, and in 
opposing these claims no one was more honest or zealous 
than the subject of this biography. 



54 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IV. 

The Legislature of Georgia having publicly thanked the 
eccentric John Eandolph for his " virtuous and manly op- 
position to a compromise," it will not be considered irrele- 
vant if we give here some extracts from one of his speeches, 
especially as they serve to throw light upon what follows. 

On the 29th March, 1806, the subject came before the 
House, on a message from the Senate, stating that they had 
passed a bill to carry into effect the provisions of the eighth 
section of the "Act" regulating the grants of land, and 
providing for the disposal of the lands of the United States 
south of the State of Tennessee." A motion was immedi- 
ately made by Mr. Kelson, of Maryland, that the bill be 
rejected. Mr. Goldsborough, another member from Ma- 
ryland, having made a fruitless motion to postpone, and 
having then requested to be excused from, voting, Mr. 
Randolph said : 

I hope the bill will be rejected. I have a very great re- 
spect for a full and fair discussion of every question brought 
before this assembly. But this is the third, and I do not 
know that I should be wrong in saying it is the fourth, ses- 
sion since this business has been pending before Congress. 
I believe that the report of the commissioners has been 
printed twice, if not three times, for the information of 
members. This bill, we are told, has been lying twenty 
days on our tables. But, had it come before the House but 
twenty minutes ago, Avhen we advert to the history of the 
business, I am willing and anxious to give it a positive and 
prompt rejection. My memory is unfortunately bad. I 
do not, therefore, recollect when this subject, so well de- 
nominated the Yazoo subject, was first brought into this 
House. I know, however, it was several sessions ago, and 
I recollect that it was attended with some peculiar circum- 
stances. I recollect that, important as the subject was, the 
discussion was smothered at the outset ; and when I take 
into consideration that suppression of the discussion, with 
other facts in my own knowledge, there is the strongest 
prima facie evidence that it was designedly smothered.f 
But it may be said that the suppression of that discussion 
ought to render it more proper to discuss the bill before you. 

* For this Act, see U. S. Statutes at large, vol. 2, pp. 229 to 235.— Bd. 
•j- In justice to the Reporter, it ought to be stated that he explained fully the reason 
why the debate was unavoidably omitted from the House proceedings.— Ed. 



Chap. IV.] YAZOO FRAUD.— SPEECH OF MR. RANDOLPH. 55 

On the contrary, the act of suppression, three or four years 
ago, drew the attention of the public to the subject, and 
caused the report of the commissio-ners to be republished, 1 
believe, in every newspaper in America. 

Now, what will be the consequence of this business, after 
having received the attention of one branch of the Legisla- 
ture, and after having been slurred over by the other ? I 
believe it would require no prophet to pronounce on the 
event. I have heard of a certain machine, which always 
gains and never loses — a machine which plain wagoners 
call a shuffling stick. Every step it gets up hill is sure, 
although the horse be restive, or the wagon be loaded too 
heavily, or the driver be incapable — still it cannot go back 
again. 

I am for the rejection of the bill for another reason. This 
bill may be called the Omega, the last letter of the political 
alphabet ; but, with me, it is the Alpha ; it is the head of 
the divisions among the republican party ; it is the secret 
and covert cause of the whole. This is the subject which 
has been shoved off from day to day, merely that we might 
get something from the other House, where its friends were 
more numerous. Yes, a union has been formed between 
Cape Ann and Marblehead, and the Kio del N"orte, a union 
of the East with the West, which makes gentlemen more 
touchy and jealous of one acre of this territory than of all 
the real land of the United States. This has been seen, 
and the nation is sold. I say, quoad hos or illos, the nation 
is sold. "We have heard of this thing two years ago, and it 
has come to pass. No prophets so true as those who have 
the means to bring things to pass. The Man of the 
Mountain is the truest prophet that ever lived. He had 
only to prophesy, to insure the perdition of any man. 

What is the bill on which this House is called to act or 
not to act ? If the gentleman will but use half the intelli- 
gence he manifests on other occasions, instead of asking to 
be excused from giving a vote, he will vote for an instan- 
taneous rejection of this bill. The facts are simply these: 
That in 1794 and 1795, a project was set on foot to debauch 
and corrupt the Legislature of Georgia, and to obtain for 
the projectors a tract of country more extensive than any 
State in this Union, and more fertile than most of thena ; 
that this project succeeded ; that the Legislature of Georgia 
was bribed ; that for a mess of pottage, to be eaten by them- 
selves, they transferred the birth-right of their countrymen. 
These facts are in proof to the House; and, instead of a 
postponement, gentlemen who want information have only 



56 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IV. 

to call for the reading of the records on your table. The 
sum stipulated to be paid for the country "i'n question, em- 
bracing at the least forty millions of acres, was $500,000. 
This law excited, as it ought to have excited, in the people 
of Georgia, one general sentiment of indignation. But the 
corruption had pervaded and flooded and overflowed every* 
department of the government. Grants were made out, 
and the grantees held the parchments in their hands. The 
people of Georgia resolved to resort to first principles. It 
will be recollected that the corrupt law was passed in 1795. 
In the subsequent spring, the grand juries of the several 
counties made a unanimous protest against its passage ; the 
succeeding Legislature repealed it, burnt the parchment, and 
exposed its authors. And what are we now about to do? 
Will we, after following an illustrious patriot f to his grave, 
sully the fairest page in his history by giving a sanction to 
this measure ? The people will say you are mere mura- 
mers,_ actors that put on false garments for a particular 
occasion, and the moment after return to your original 
insignificance. The law was burnt — it was expunged from 
the records of the State, and the rescinding act incorporated 
in a subsequent constitution made by the people. i3ut the 
grantees under the first act — under the corrupt act — had 
their post-horses and runners ready, who flew to the East 
and the West, the North and the South, and made sale of 
their grants. To whom did they sell ? To persons apprised 
of the original invalidity of the act. But if they did not, 
does that change the question ? Who are the Legislature of 
Georgia ? The delegates of the people of Georgia. Who 
were the sovereigns of the several States before tlie Ee volu- 
tion ? The representatives of the Crown. I will ask you, 
then, if one of these men had proceeded to give away the 
country, whether the Court of King's Bench would not 
have set aside the grant? They would. Subsequently to 
this, the United States received from the State of Georgia 
a grant of the country in question, and of other country not 
in question. In receiving this grant, they acknowledged 
the validity of the rescinding act of Georgia. The United 

* la White's Statistics of Georgia, page 50, it is said, " no corruption was imputed to 
the Governor (Mathews). It is just to his memory— that of a soldier who had won a 
thousand laurels in the war of independence— to afiSrm that weakness of judgment, not 
corruption of heart, guided the pen which sanctioned the detested statute." There is a 
tradition, that his Secretary, to prevent the passage of the law, dipped the Governors pen 
in oil; and that, after repeated trials, finding the pen would not write, the Governor 
seized another pen and signed the bill.— Ed. 

t Gen. James Jackson, a Senator from Georgia, who died in Washington City, on the 
19th of Mar'-h, 1806.— £r. 



Chaf. IV.] YAZOO FRAUD.— SPEECH OF MR. RANDOLPH. 57 

States, when they received the g-raiit, were apprised of the 
preceding transfers, and the acceptance of the country from 
Georgia is unequivocal evidence of their opinion that the 
original act of 1795 was null and void. But in a country 
so extensive as this, in which some settlements had been 
previously made under British, Spanish, and other grants, 
from the State of Georgia, than those of 1795, it will be 
readily believed there were many antagonizing claims for 
lands. When, therefore, the United States received the 
country from Georgia, they entered into a compact with 
Georgia, or obtained permission from her, to give land not 
exceeding five millions, to satisf}'" claims not provided for 
in the original contract with her. ISTow the bill before you 
proposes to give this land as far as it goes, and to pledge 
the faith of the United States to that j)articular class of 
claimants whose pretensions arise under the act of 1795. 
Tliese claims under the act of 1795, are the last class of 
claims under the State of Georgia, which, in my opinion, 
the United States are bound to .<^atisfy. There is another 
description of claims, called the claims of 1789. And I am 
very glad the claims of 1789 are not included in this bill, 
because the joint interest of the two classes might possibly 
have an effect that in this House a single class would not. 
Well, Congress took the grant of the country in question 
from Georgia. They bound themselves to extinguish the In- 
dian title to lands within the existing State of Georgia ; to 
Georgia they stipulated to pay a certain sum of money, and 
they reserved the right of appropriating a quantity of lands 
not exceeding five millions of acres to satisfy claims not 
specially recognized in the contract with Georgia. The 
question now is, as I take it, whether these five millions 
shall go to satisfy the claims under the act of 1795, But if 
it should be the sense of the House that the bill includes 
those likewise of 1789, it wdll not alter, in my opinion, the 
question. 

But I may be asked by men who profess not to be in- 
formed on this subject, what is this act of 1789, and who are 
the claimants under it, and how can there be interfering 
claims for the same land ? The case is simply this : In 
1789 two companies were formed, under the names of the 
South Carolina and the Yirginia Yazoo Companies, who 
contracted for a great, and the greater part of the country 
afterwards purchased by the claimants under the act of 
1795. But Georgia alleges that they did not comply with 
their contract, and that it was therefore set aside, and the 
same lands subsequently sold under the act of 1795. Be it 
8 



58 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUF. [Chap, IV 

remembered that the purchasers irnder the act of 1795 
were men of understanding, of intelligence, of intrigue; 
designing men ; speculators ; not bullies, but swindlers ; 
men not to be imposed on, but with their eyes open. They 
bought with a full knowledge of the equitable claims of 
1789. When I say this, I do not mean to advocate the 
claims of 1789. AVhen put to the test, one description of 
claims will be found as invalid as the other. But to whom 
did the grantees under the act of 1795, sell ? After the pre- 
sentments of the grand juries — after it had rung throughout 
the continent — that the whole was an imposition of corrup- 
tion and fraud, and after there was every reason to believe 
they M^ere acquainted with all the circumstances, deeds 
were given, one of which bears contemporaneous date with 
the rescinding act of Georgia. After this, what did they 
do ? They went back to Georgia ; there the money tliey 
had paid was still lying in the treasury of Georgia, with 
which Georgia said she would have nothing to do ; after 
having sold the lands for which they had paid this half 
million, they drew this very money from the treasury of 
Georgia. Is this the say-so of an individual? The act ap- 
pears in the report of your commissioners, composed of the 
•Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the 
late Attorney General, in a report now on your table, and 
which has been twice published under the authority of this 
House. "" "■'' " 

The bill was rejected, the same day, by a vote of sixty- 
two to fifty-four. Mr. Randolph then "moved that the 
House adjourn. He said that a few days ago the House 
had adjourned on account of the death of General Jackson. 
He hoped they would now adjourn on account of his resur- 
rection. For he had told him, that if he could give a 
death-blow to the Yazoo business, he should die in peace. 
Adjourned, yeas fifty-eight." 

This occurred before the entrance of Colonel Troup into 
Congress. During the session of 1807-8, the same subject 
came before the Plouse, on a memorial signed by the Gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts by order and at the unanimous re- 
quest of the Legislature of that State, " praying the atten- 
tion of the National Government to the claim and rights 
of sundry citizens of the said State of Massachusetts in and 



Chap. IV.] YAZOO FRAUD.— REMARKS OF COL. TROUP. 

to certain lands purchased under 
Georgia," &c. Mr. Bibb, of Georgia, immediately moved 
the rejection of the memorial. In seconding the motion, 
Col. Troup made a short speech, in which, amongst other 
things, he said : 

The memorial, on a subject on which the House had be- 
fore decided, and that on the most mature deliberation, was 
treating the House with disrespect ; it was an attempt (it 
could be considered in no other light) to tease the House; 
to torture it into a compliance with the prayer of the peti- 
tion. The House was to be provoked into a surrender of 
important rights to get rid of the memorialists. They were 
bound to listen to a memorial couched in decent, proper 
and respectful terms, but not to the language of insult — 
and this was an insult upon this body, calling upon it to 
sanction corruption so vile and infamous. AVith this im- 
pression he should second the motion of his colleague. 
During the same debate, Col. Troup said : 
He was extremely sorry that on this subject he should 
trouble the House— he felt at this time particularly dis- 
qualified. Was this business never to be finally disposed 
of? Did the claimants calculate their chances of success 
on the confidence, or rather on the audacity, with which 
they urged their claims ? Was the justice of their claims to 
be esiimated by the indefatigable assiduity with which they 
renewed their pretensions ? and pretensions, too, which 
were audacious, unfounded and insolent — originating in 
fraud and corruption— embellished Avith murder, perjury, 
and every species of enormity ! He trusted there was 
virtue sufficient in this Assembly to treat the claimants 
with contempt. He flattered himself that the Legislature 
would not degrade itself by a compromise with speculation 
and corruption ; he presumed the Capitol was not the place 
where speculators were to seek indemnity. If it were, they 
had better appropriate live or six millions of acres to these 
injured persons — to these miscalculators of profit and loss, 
or rather to these men mined by the unsuccessful exercise 
of the arts of bribery and corruption. AVhat did the me- 
morialists demand? That this House should indemnify 
them for losses sustained by the act of Georgia. Would 
they do it on the broad principle of relieving all speculators 
in distress, or from the cession to the United States, by the 
State of Georgia, of the land in question ? Un the last 
principle, they would not presume to attempt it; for they 



60 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IT. 

knew that they had not the power. On this account, he wish- 
ed the memorial to be rejected. He was as much disposed as 
any gentleman on the floor to treat the State of Massachu- 
setts with respect, as an integral part of the Union ; but, he 
would ask, what right had the State of Massachusetts to 
interfere with an individual claim ? None. 

The subject again came before the House, on the 12th of 
February, 1808, on the memorial of Joseph (afterwards 
Judge) Story, as the agent of the Kew England Mississippi 
Company, praying that he might " be admitted to a hear- 
ing at the bar of the House of Representatives in behalf of 
said company, to state their rights and explain their claims," 
and a resolution offered to hear said agent. The mover of 
the resolution (Mr. Bacon, of Massachusetts,) said, " this 
w^as not a question which required any abstruse reasoning 
or deep research for facts. He had taken this resolution 
from a precedent, which he found recorded, of a similar in- 
dulgence granted to the South Carolina Company, who 
were heard at the bar of the House in support of their 
claim, by Mr. Moultrie, tlieir agent, in a nearly similar 
case." 

Mr. Troup hoped the resolution would not be adopted. 
The precedent adduced was not in point ; that was in the 
case of an application to be heard on the subject of the old 
Virginia and South Carolina claims. It will be recollected 
by the House that the case adduced in precedent was an 
old, a dormant claim, which had slept long, and the prin- 
ciples of which were almost forgotten by members of the 
House, and, when application w^as made for hearing, they 
determined to hear all that could be said, that they might 
act understandingly on the subject. They did hear, and 
were satisfied ; from that time to this the House had had no 
further trouble with it. The claims of these persons, how- 
ever, have been turned over Irom session to session, can- 
vassed over and over again ; and the House are as well 
conversant with the merits of the claim as with its advo- 
cates. I do not know whether it is customary to admit 
within its bar the advocates of claims, i'or my part, I do 
not know, if such persons were admitted within the bar, 
that I would keep my seat and listen. It is impossible that 
this House could be so lost to a sense of its own dignitv as 



Chap. IY.] REMARKS OF COL. TROUP. Ql 

to enter into a controversy on its own floor with speculators 
or their agents. In discussion of this subject among our- 
selves, our utmost coolness and care will be required to 
keep ns in temper with each other ; and the admission of a 
stranger within this bar, for the purpose of irritating, and, 
perhaps, insulting us — and I beg gentlemen to recollect 
that the theme isextreraely delicate — will not increase the 
calmness which ought to be observed. What is the object 
of the present motion ? Is it proposed, by admitting a 
practicing attorney on this floor, to enlighten us on a sub- 
ject of wliich we are profoundly ignorant ? 'No ; with the 
principle of this claim we are all acquainted. Its object is 
to give some strength to a claim which has not the smallest 
foundation in justice, and they know it. They have no 
more claim on the United States than on you or me. Why, 
then, do they call upon ns ? Because the United States 
has an overflowing treasury. If I had it, they would make 
the same claim upon me. They are the cormorants which 
perch upon the treasuries of all nations ; and as long as you 
have gold and silver, and manifest a disposition to give, 
they will stick to you. I thought, for my part, that one 
discussion would have sufliced for them ; on the presenta- 
tion of the original memorial, you listened to it, and sub- 
mitted it to a Committee of the whole House. I was 
anxious that all discussion on this subject should have been 
waived : it might have been, and I had hoped it would. I 
myself would have submitted my individual feelings to the 
harmony of the nation, and am sorry that I am now com- 
pelled to speak. 

On the same day. Col. Troup delivered another animated 
speech on the same subject. The question was taken on 
the resolution, and it was rejected by yeas twenty-eight 
to nays seventy-six. 

In order to present here a general view of the further 
progress of this subject, it is necessary to go forward some- 
what out of the chronological order of this biography. It 
is chiefly for the part which Col. Troup took, in opposition 
to these claims, that we have introduced the subject at all. 

On the ITth December, 1810, he ofl'ered the following 
resolution in the House : 

Iiesolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury be directed 
to lay before this House any information he may have 



62 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IV. 

touching any settlement, contrary to law, on the pnblic 
lands in the Mississippi Territory; by whom, at what pe- 
riods and extent, and what measures had been taken to 
remove such intruders on the public lands. 

In explaining the resolution, he said his object was to 
obtain information as to certain lands in the Mississippi 
Territory ; the title to which the United States had, on the 
one hand, declared to be vested in them, and the Supreme 
Court, on the other hand, had declared not to be in the 
United States, but in those persons claiming under the 
Yazoo speculation. This decision must either be acquiesced 
in or resisted by the United States. If acquiesced in, it 
must be in one of two ways. The United States must 
either permit the Supreme Court to execute its judgment 
in the ordinary course, or must permit quiet possession to 
be taken by the claimants. Whether they acquiesce in one 
way or the other, two distinct great rights were affected : 
firstj'the great interest of the whole people of the United 
States, claiming equal and common proprietorship of the 
soil; and, second, the great interest of the people of 
Georgia, to whom the United States had agreed to pay 
$1,250,000, out of the proceeds of the sales of these lands. 
If the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States 
was acquiesced in, the State of Georgia would be thus de- 
frauded both of her land and money. But if the govern- 
ment of the United States would not submit to this decision, 
but resist it to the last extremity, what course could be taken 
but to employ the whole military force of the United States 
to eject all persons not claiming under the authority of the 
United States ? If that description of persons claiming the 
territory, in whose behalf a decision was lately made, taking 
forcible possession, should obtain such a footing as to be able 
to oppose to the authority of the United States a considerable 
force, there would perhaps be no alternative but for the Uni- 
ted States to remove them by an exertion of its military 
power, or tamely to acquiesce in the lawless aggression. It 
was from these considerations that he was desirous to have 
information on the subject of the late settlements there. 

The resolution was adopted. The decision of the Su- 
preme Court, to which reference was above made, is that 
in the case of Fletcher v. Peck, 6 Cranch's Kep., 87 to 148, at 
February term, 1810; a case originating in the U. S. Cir- 
cuit Court for the District of Massachusetts, and which was 
brought to try the title to 15,000 acres of land situate on 



Chap. IV.] CASE IN THE SUPREME COURT. 53 

the Mississippi and Tombigby rivers, under and by virtue 
of sundry mesne conveyances founded on a grant from the 
State of Georgia under the act of Tth January, 1T95. 
Those who are curious in such matters are referred to the 
decision itself for information on all the points adjudicated 
by the Court ; but the following extracts we believe suffi- 
cient to show the general grounds on which the judgment 
in that case was rendered : 

This (say the Court) is not a bill brought by the State of 
Georgia to annul the contract ; nor does it appear to the 
court, by this count, that the State of Georgia is dissatisfied 
with the sale that has been made. The case, as made out 
in the pleadings, is simply this. One individual, who holds 
lands in the State of Georgia under a deed covenanting that 
the title of Georgia was in the grantor, brings an action of 
covenant upon this deed, and assigns, as a breach, that some 
of the members of the Legislature were induced to vote in 
favor of the law which constituted the contract, by being 
promised an interest in it, and that therefore the act is a 
mere nullity. This solemn question cannot be brought thus 
collaterally and incidentally before the court. It would be 
indecent, in the extreme, upon a private contract between 
two individuals, to enter into an inquiry respecting the 
corruption of the sovereign power of a State. If the title 
be plainly deduced from a legislative act, which the Legis- 
lature might constitutionally pass, if the act be clothed with 
all the requisite forms of a law, a court, sitting as a court 
of law, cannot sustain a suit brought by one individual 
against another, founded on the allegation that the act is 
a nullity in consequence of the impure motives which in- 
fluenced certain members of the Legislature which passed 
the law. * '■• If a suit be brought to set aside a 

conveyance obtained by fraud, and the fraud be clearly 
proved, the conveyance will be set aside, as between the 
parties ; but the rights of third persons, who are purchasers 
without notice for a valuable consideration, cannot be dis- 
regarded. Titles which, according to every legal test, are 
perfect, are acquired with that confidence which is inspired 



64 LIFE OP GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IV. 

by the opinion that the purchaser is sale. If there be any 
concealed defect, arising from the conduct of those who 
had held the property long before he acquired it, of which 
he had no notice, that concealed defect cannot be set up 
against him. He has paid his money for a title good at 
law, he is innocent, whatever may be the guilt of others ; 
and equity Vill not subject him to the penalties attached to 
that guilt. All titles would be insecure, and the intercourse 
between man and man would be very seriously obstructed, 
if this principle be overturned. 

It is not proposed to combat the rulings of the court as 
the case actually stood before it upon the pleadings. The 
points decided by the Court, in the above extracts, appear 
to be these : First, Georgia not being a complaining party, 
the question could not be collaterally and incidentally de- 
cided. Secondly, For aught that appeared, the act was 
constitutionally passed . Thirdly, There was nothing on the 
face of the pleadings to show that the defendant was not a 
purchaser in good faith for a valuable consideration. The 
case was one of inference and presumj^tion from the plead- 
ings. How these inferences were met by the opponents of 
the act, amongst whom Col. Troup was one of the ablest, 
will now appear. 

On the 19th of January, 1S13, a bill passed the United 
States Senate, to carry into effect the report of James 
Madison, Secretary of State, Albert Gallatin, Secretary 
of the Treasury, and Levi Lincoln, Attorney General of 
the United States, Commissioners, &c., in the year 1803, 
recommending an equitable compromise with the Yazoo 
claimants. It passed a third reading in the Senate, against 
the votes of William H. Crawford and Charles Tait, Sen- 
ators from Georgia. On the 20th of January, the bill was 
read a first time in the tlouse, and on a motion to read it 
the second time and commit it. Col. Troup, having asked if 
a motion to reject the bill would not supersede a motion to 
commit, and beins: answered in the affirmative, said : 



Chap. IV.] FURTHER REMARKS OF COL. TROUP. 65 

It is on uo ordinary occasion, sir, 1 would permit myself 
to move the rejection of a bill on tlie first reading, coming 
from another branch of the Legislature, but the measure 
growing out of an hideous corruption, I owe it to you to 
move, because I think you owe it to your own dignity to 
reject the bill, not upon any dubious evidence of the fraud 
and corruption of the Georgia Legislature, but upon evi- 
dence satisfactory to you and to all mankind, spread upon 
your own records by commissioners of your own appoint- 
ment, and which the clerk can be called on to read. The 
nature, the extent, the detail of corruption by which the 
Legislature of Georgia were induced to sell the public pro- 
perty, are there portrayed by your own commissioners. It 
is stated that more than two-thirds of the Legislature were 
bribed and corrupted, were interested in and parties to the 
purchase. They show you that A received 112,000 acres 
of land for his vote ; that B received 75,000 acres for his 
vote ; that C received 56,000 acres for his vote, and that 
none received less than 56,000 acres. It is upon this record 
evidence, then, that I move you to reject the bill. You 
rejected the bill from the Senate, on the first reading, for 
the suspension of the habeas corpus act. Why ? Because 
the bill contained a principle violative of civil liberty. I 
move you to reject this bill! Why? Because it contains 
a principle destructive of republican government. The 
purity and incorruptibility of the representative character 
is the basis of our republican institutions — if there be one 
principle of our government more fundamental than an- 
other, it is that no benefit or profit or advantage shall re- 
sult either immediately or remotely to any human being 
from the corruption of the representatives of the people. 
The bill proposes to give five millions of dollars to those 
claiming under the corrupters of representatives of the 
people. The corrupters only gave five hundred thousand 
dollars — 'the United States only gave twelve hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars to Georgia for her territory. The 
bill proposes to give five millions of dollars to the claim- 
ants — five millions of dollars to extinguish their claim. 
You are required to reward the claimants who bought of 
those who corrupted the Legislature of Georgia. We say, 
no ! Let ruin overtake the corrupters of the representatives 
of the people and all claiming under them. The corrupters 
have made their fortunes, now you are called upon to make 
the fortunes of the claimants ; this is to be precedent, this 
is to be example. 

The claimants have hitherto urged their claim with in- 
9 



(56 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IV. 

defatigable perseverance, they have teased and wearied 
you ; you have constantly repelled them ; they have seen 
their discomfiture in the justness and simplicity of your 
reasoning. You say to them, in substance, the Yazoo act 
having been fraudulently and corruptly obtained, was null 
and void, ah initio. All contracts founded in fraud are 
void. It could pass no right ; if it could pass no right to 
the original purchasers, it is impossible that the original 
purchasers could pass any right to the claimants ; and if 
no right passed to the claimants, it is impossible they can 
have a claim or shadow of claim against you. They 
constantly found themselves foiled by this honesty and sim- 
plicity of reasoning. Seeing you firm and inflexible, they 
turned about and addressed themselves to the Judiciary. 
They found in the law-books of England a maxim which 
suited them ; two of the speculators combined and made up 
a fictitious case, a feigned issue for the decision of the Su- 
preme Court."^ They presented precisely those points for 
the decision of the court which they wished the court to 
decide ; and the court did actually decide them as the 
speculators themselves would have decided them if they 
had been in the place of the Supreme Court. The first 
point was, whether the Legislature of Georgia had the 
power to sell the territory ? Yes, said the Judges, they had. 
Second, whether by the Yazoo act an estate did vest in the 
original grantees ? Yes, said the Judges, it did. Third, 
whether it was competent to any subsequent Legislature 
to set aside the act on the ground of fraud and corruption ? 
No, said the Judges, it was not ; an estate did vest in the 
grantees by the Yazoo act, which could not be divested by 
the act of any subsequent Legislature. No matter, say the 
Judges, what the nature or extent of the corruption, be it 
ever so wicked, be it ev^er so nefarious, it could not be set 
aside. The speculators had hunted up a maxim of the com- 
mon law or equity courts of England, and the Judges 
wielded it for their benefit and to the ruin of the country — 
the maxim that third purchasers without notice shall not 
be afiected by the fraud of the original parties. Thus, sir. 



* la cleUvering his separate opinion in the case of Fletcher v. Peck, Mr. Justice 
Johnson said: "I have been very uuwiUing to proceed to the decision of this cause at 
all. It appears to mo to bear strong evidence, upon the face of it, of being a mere 
feigned case. It is our duty to decide on the rights, but not on the speculations of par- 
ties. My confidence, however, in the respectable gentlemen who have been engaged for the 
parties, has induced me to abandon my scruples, in the belief that they would never con- 
sent to impose a mere feigned case upon this Court." — Ed. 



Chap. IV.] FURTHER REMARKS OF COL. TROTJP. (37 

by a maxim of English law, are the rights and liberties ot 
the people of this conntry to be corruptly bartered b}^ their 
representatives. It is this decision of the Judges which 
has been made the basis of the bill on your table — a deci- 
sion shocking to every free government, sapping the foun- 
dation of all your constitutions, and annihilating at a breath 
the best hope of man. Yes, sir, it is proclaimed by the 
Judges, and is now to be sanctioned by the Legislature, 
that the representatives of the people may corruptly 
betray the people, may corruptly barter their rights and 
those of their posterity, and the people are wholly without 
any kind, of remedy whatsoever. It is this monstrous and 
abhorrent doctrine which must startle every man in the 
nation, that you ought promptly to discountenance and 
condemn. It is this doctrine, the basis and essential prin- 
ciple of the bill, that we call upon you to reject. Suppose, 
sir, the Legislature of Georgia, instead of selling the public 
territory, had corruptly sold the good people of Georgia 
and all their posterity into slavery, the consequences would 
have been the same, the judges would have decreed that an 
estate did vest in the original grantee, notwithstanding the 
corruption, which could not be divested by any subsequent 
Legislature. But, sir, let me state to you a case, exposing 
at once the flagrant enormity of the principle : it is a case 
as perfectly parallel as the human mind can conceive. 
Suppose, sir, that the twelfth Congress should corruptly 
sell the good people of the United States to England, and 
England should instantly sell to France — France would 
come upon the thirteenth Congress and demand possession ; 
the virtuous thirteenth Congress would say, No ! we will 
not give you possession ; the twelfth Congress was bribed 
and corrupted to sell the good people of the United States ; 
fraud vitiates every grant, and therefore you can have no 
right to demand possession. Ah ! but, says France, I am 
an innocent purchaser, I purchased without knowledge of 
the fraud; and it is a maxim of the common law of Eng- 
land that third purchasers are not to be aflected by the 
fraud of the original parties. ThuSf sir, according to the 
Judges, would the good people of the United States be sold 
like a flock of sheep by the corruption of their representa- 
tives, leaving them, the people, without any kind qf remedy 
whatsoever. 

If, Mr. Speaker, the arch iiend had, in the bitterness of 
his hatred to mankind, resolved the destruction of republi- 
can government on earth, he would have issued a decree 
like that of the judges; he would have said, in the spirit 



68 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROTJP. [Chap. IV. 

and language of this bill, let the claimants under the cor- 
rupters of the representatives of the people be rewarded. 
In a nation of enlightened men, whose governments have 
their origin in and exist only by the will of the people, that 
will is contemned and held for nothing. Why, it may be 
asked, do the judges who passed this decision live and live 
unpunished 'i The answer is found in the mildness and 
moderation of our government. I thank God it is so. If, 
under a despotism, the throne of the monarch had been 
thus assailed, the judges would have perished. Here the 
foundations of the Eepublic are shaken, and the judges 
sleep in tranquillity at home. Take my word for it, Mr. 
Speaker — I beseech you to remember what I say — no party 
in this country, however deeply seated in power, can long 
survive the adoption of this measure. I remember a gen- 
tleman, once a member of this House ; he had his seat on 
the opposite side of it ; he was a man of the most vigorous 
intellect I ever knew ; he had deeply studied human nature ; 
to be sure his conduct was not always regulated by his 
knowledge of it ; he w^as often imprudent and not unfre- 
quently extravagant. Whenever this question was turned 
up, however, he used to address his political friends, " Gen- 
tlemen, I beseech you to withhold your countenance from 
this measure. It is founded in corruption, the people know 
it ; they are not yet ripe for the supply of men who will 
support such measures. If you want to mount into power, 
if you wish to conciliate the affection of this people, you 
must assume a virtue if you have it not." 

Mr. Troup said he wished it understood that in moving 
the rejection of the bill, it was not his design to enter at 
all into the merits of the Yazoo claim. The few observa- 
tions he had submitted, were directed to the principle con- 
tained in the bill. If!, however, the House should in its 
discretion determine to sustain that principle, and to enter 
into the merits of the question at large, he should, notwith- 
standing it had been so often discussed and was so well 
understood by every man in the nation, have no objection 
to meet it. He would llien undertake to show to the House, 
1st, That the Legislature of Georgia had no constitutional 
power to sell tlie public domain. 2d, That if it had, it 
could not«ell fraudulently and corruptly. 3d, That these 
claimants had notice of the fraud, and, having notice, are, 
according to the maxim of the judges themselves, without 
claim or shadow of claim. 

The bill was not rejected, but was referred to the Com- 



Chap. IV.] ANOTHER SPEECH ON" THE YAZOO FRAUD. 69 

mittee on Public Lands, which afterwards made a report 
recommending a modification of the terms of the bill, and 
proposing amendments accordingly. On the 8th of March, 
1814, the Senate bill again coming up before the House, 
Col. Troup said : ^ 

He rose with great reluctance to move to reject the bill. 
There were only two considerations which could induce 
him to depart from the respect due to another branch of 
the Legislature ; either that a measure emanating from it 
was unconstitutional or corrupt. It was because this meas- 
ure had its origin in corruption he moved to reject the bill. 
When I say, sir, that this measure has its origin in corrup- 
tion, I do not mean to be understood as charging corruption 
on the Senate — all I mean to be understood as saying, is, 
that this measure flows from corruption, as a stream flows 
from its source ; it flows from the corrupt act of the Legis- 
lature of Georgia of 1795. The bill proposes to give five 
millions of dollars to the Yazoo claimants. The Yazoo 
Legislature sold for five hundred thousand dollars-.— Georgia 
sold to the United States for one million two hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars only, and you now propose to give 
five millions to the claimants to compromise their claim. 
How will we be able to account for this 'i How will pos- 
terity be able to account for it ? Posterity will say that 
these claimants, like the gods of Milton, carried the moun- 
tains in their hands, and wielding the fifty mill ions of acres 
under the decision of the Supreme Court, have carried 
everything before them. 

You know the history of this transaction, sir. On the 
7th of January, 1795, the Legislature of Georgia sold to 
certain individuals, called the original grantees, fifty mil- 
lions of acres of land for five hundred thousand dollars. 
Eveiy member who voted for the law, except one, whose 
name does not appear, was bribed and corrupted, that is to 
say, was interested in, and the party to the purchase. On 
the 13th of February, 1796, the subsequent Legislature de- 
clared the corrupt act null and.void ; ordered the record to 
be burnt, and authorized, the grantees to withdraw the pur- 
chase money. The convention of the whole people soon 
after confirmed the rescinding act.. On the same day, that 
is to say, on the 13th of February, 1796, the Yazoo claim- 
ants purchased from the original grantees. The claimants 
say that they are innocent purchasers, without notice of the 
corruption — that an estate vested notwithstanding the cor- 



70 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IV. 

rnption, and that they have a good title against you. It 
may be well to observe here that the claimants have con- 
stantly shifted their ground. At first they insisted that the 
Yazoo act of 1795 was a fair and honest act of legislation. 
As soon, however, as the report of your Comtnissioners, 
which exhibited the fraud in its nakedness, drove them 
from this ground, they insisted on the innocency of their 
purchase. Driven from this ground, they throw themselves 
on your mercy. Do not believe, sir, that the corruption in 
which this transaction was engendered, was a corruption of 
any ordinary character ; it was a corruption without ex- 
ample in history ; may it never find a parallel ! Not 
merely were the corruii)ted corrupted by the corrupters — 
the corrupters cheated the corrupted — the corrupters cheat- 
ed one another, and the corrupters, as they say, cheated 
these claimants. The members of the Legislature were 
bribed with land and money ; in some instances the mem- 
ber gave his vote, and the corrupter withheld the bribe ; 
the member went home — he had lost his character — he had 
lost his bribe, and he died broken-hearted in the bosom of 
his family. When the rescinding Legislature, in a spirit of 
liberality which became them, decreed that the original 
grantees might withdraw the purchase money, on produ- 
cing certain evidence of their having made the deposite — 
such a scene of fraud, iniquity and depravity was exhibited, 
that the Governor, familiar as he had been with such scenes 
but a short time before, blushed and shut the doors of the 
treasury against them. Men concerned in this transaction, 
but who had not deposited one dollar, by perjury, forgery, 
or some other crime, drev/ thousands from the treasury ; 
those of the speculators who had actually paid the money, 
were then defrauded by their brethren. On the other hand, 
some of the original grantees allege that they were cheated 
by these claimants — that the claimants gave them paper 
for their land, which paper turned out good for nothing. 
Thus, sir, you see this Yazoo transaction is a circle of fraud. 
It no doubt had a beginning, but it is certainly without end, 
unless you consummate it by this measure. 

As good fortune will have- it, Mr. Speaker, this is one of 
the plainest cases that can be presented to the nnderstand- 
ing. The claimants either have a claim, or they have not. 
If they have a claim, you may compromise a claim ; if 
they have no claim, you cannot compromise no claim.. If 
they have a claim, it is a claim to fifty millions of acres of 
land, and you ought to give it to them, and say no more 
about it. Could you entertain a thought for one moment 



Chap. IV.] ANOTHER SPEECH ON THE YAZOO FRAIJD. 71 

to avail yourself of your power to do wrong and injustice 
to these impotent individuals ? Surely no man will have 
the hardihood to say that the magnitude of the claim ought 
to weigh one tittle in the scale of justice. The claimants 
either have a title to fifty millions of acres, or they have not 
a title to a square foot. How do they derive the title ? 
From the original grantees. How do the original grantees 
derive title ? From the Yazoo Legislature of '95. Their 
title, therefore, must depend on the validity or invalidity 
of the Yazoo act of the Legislature of Georgia — it can 
depend on nothing else. If tlie Yazoo act was a good and 
valid act, an estate vested in the original grantees ; the 
grantees passed the estate to these claimants, and the 
claimants have a good title against you. If the Yazoo act 
was a null and void act, no estate vested in the original 
grantees ; if no estate vested in the original grantees, they 
could pass none to these claimants, and if no estate passed 
to these claimants, on what pretense can they set up the 
title against you ? Are the Congress of the United States 
prepared to say that the Yazoo act, notwithstanding the 
corruption of the representatives of the people, was a good 
and valid act? That it divested the public property out of 
the people and vested it in the grantees ? Are the Congress 
of the United States prepared to say, that the representa- 
tives of a free and virtuous people may fraudulently and 
corruptly betray that people, and barter their rights, and 
that the people are without remedy? That an estate did 
vest by the Yazoo act, which could not be divested by any 
subsequent act! Sir, it is impossible. This doctrine is too 
monstrous to be entertained by a moral people, who love 
liberty — it strikes at all virtue, at all morality — it overturns 
Eepublican governments. You can not, you dare not, 
sanctify this doctrine. If you dare, one of two things must 
happen ; the people are ready to approve it, or they are 
not — if they are, they have lost their virtue, and we must 
seek shelter under despotism ; if they are not, you will go 
out and other men will come in. Not the gentlemen on the 
other side of the House — they never can come in — men 
will come in who will discountenance corruption, cherish 
virtue, and preserve the principles of the government pure 
and uncorrupted. I address myself to the Eepublican 
party : let them remember how they came into power. 
The Federalists had been charged with monarchical attach- 
ments ; with cherishing corrupt principles of government. 
The people believed it. They said the government was not 
safe in such hands — they turned them out. You succeeded. 



72 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IV. 

The people said to you — take this sacred trust, do your 
duty faithfully ; preserve the principles of this happy gov- 
ernment pure and uncorrupted, and be ready to hand it 
over to your successors whenever you shall be required, 
more pure and uncorrupted than when you received it. 
Will you do so when you have decreed that the representa- 
tives of the people may corruptly divest the estate of the 
people, and that they are without remedy ? Yet, sir, this 
you must do the moment you decide to compromise this 
claim. But you have no reason, no motive, no apology, 
for thus deciding. I will take away from every unpreju- 
diced man in the country every pretext, every apology for 
compromising this claim. I insist that the Yazoo Legisla- 
ture had no constitutional power to sell the land. 

1st. I contend that the Legislature had no constitutional 
power to sell. 

2nd. That if they had constitutional power to sell, they 
could not sell fraudulently and corruptly. 

3rd. That if, notwithstanding the fraud and corruption, 
au estate did vest in the original grantees, according to the 
decision of the Supreme Court, these claimants having 
notice of the fraud, are parties to it, and without title in 
law or equity. 

There is no power given in the Constitution of Georgia, 
and without an express grant of power the Legislature can- 
not possess it. This is the doctrine distinctly, clearly, and 
unanimously maintained by the writers on public law. The 
reasons on which it is founded are as distinctly given. The 
people are seized, collectively and individually, of the pub- 
lic territory — it cannot be taken from them without their 
consent — it cannot be taken from them without their ex- 
press consent — consent shall not be implied. 1st, because 
the power to sell the public domain is not a power inciden- 
tal or necessary to the power of legislation. 2ndly, because 
it is too important a power to be derived by implication or 
construction, ^ot only is this the universal doctrine of the 
publicists, of Grotius, Puffendorf, Vattel, Burlamaqui, and 
others, but it is the doctrine to which all our political insti- 
tutions have conformed. In the constitution of the United 
States, as well as the constitutions of the States, you see the 
doctrine clearly recognized. In the constitution of the 
United States it is said, " Congress shall have power to dis- 
pose of, and make all needful rules and regulations con- 
cerning the public property." Why was this power 
expressly granted ? Because the Convention knew that if 
not expressly granted it could not be derived by implica- 



CnAi'. IV.] ANOTHER SPEECH ON THE YAZOO FRAUD. 73 

tion or construction. So, in tlie State constitutions, the 
doctrine is recognized : " the power to dispose of the public 
domain being in the people, cannot be taken from them 
Mdthout their consent." I know it may be said that there 
is a difference between the United States and State con- 
stitutions, in the character of their powers — that in the 
United States constitution all powers not delegated are re- 
served — that in the State constitutions all powers are del- 
egated but those which are reserved. This is true, but by 
all powers is meant only all ordinary powers, all powers 
that are essential and necessary or incidental to the general 
power of legislation ; extraordinary powers, powers not es- 
sential to the general power of legislation, are, even in the 
States, retained by the people, and cannot be divested out 
of them without their express consent. This power to dis- 
pose of the pnblic domain is an extraordinary power ; for, 
say the publicists, one and all, this power is so essentially in 
the people, that even under the violent governments of 
Europe, the despot has no pow'er to dispose of the public 
domain without the express consent of the people. I know, 
too, it will be said that the State Legislatures have in some 
instances disposed of the public property without an ex- 
press grant of power to warrant it. I answer that in every 
such instance the Legislature was guilty of usurpation, and 
the people not bound — that if the people pleased to yield a 
tacit acquiescence, well and good — they did so because 
their attention had not been called to the usurpation by a 
flagrant and palpable corruption — but will you believe that 
if in any such instance the usurpation had been coupled 
with a notorious corruption of their representatives, they 
would not have resisted — that they would not have risen 
in mass, as did the people of Georgia, to put down the cor- 
ruption and the corrupted? A people who would not, 
must have lost their virtue and been ready for a tyrant. 
I say, therefore, the Yazoo Legislature of Georgia had no 
power to sell the public property. 

But if the Legislature had constitutional power to sell, it 
could not sell fraudulently and corruptly. Do you ask 
proof of this? — fraud and corruption vitiate every act, 
render it null and void al) initio / no contract, no obliga- 
tion, can grow out of it. The powers granted by the people 
to their Legislatures, are granted in confidence that they 
will be fairly and honestly exercised. What would you 
think of the declaration of a constitution, "the poweis 
herein granted shall be honestly exercised " ? Would you 
10 



74 LIFE OP GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IV. 

not consider sucli a declaration ridiculous, and ridiculous 
because superfluous ? Is not tlie implication as strong as 
any expression could be, that every fraudulent act of legis- 
lation is merely void ? Suppose it were written in any 
constitution, " the Legislature shall have no power fraud- 
ulently and corruptly to betray the people," would you 
not, too, consider this ridiculous, and ridiculous because 
superfluous ? Suppose it were written in any constitution, 
" the Legislature shall have power fraudulently and cor- 
ruptly to sell the public property," would not such a grant 
of power be merely void, though proceeding from the 
highest human authority, the people themselves? And 
why void ? Because repugnant to the laws of God and 
nature. Nay, sir, I go further ; I say the great God of 
Heaven himself could confer no such power — if the great 
God of Heaven were to decree, "the Legislature shall have 
power fraudulently and corruptly to sell the public pro- 
perty," the decree would be merely void, because incon- 
sistent with His holy attributes. And yet, sir, the Senate 
require of us to do that which the God of Heaven himself 
cannot do — legalize fraud and corruption — they require us 
to declare that, notwithstanding the fraud and corruption 
of the Georgia Legislature, an estate did vest in the origi- 
, nal grantees, which it was competent to the grantees to 
' transfer to the claimants; that the claimants have a title 
against you, and that to relinquish that title we must give 
them five millions of dollars. This is making war upon 
the people with a vengeance. To talk of the rights of the 
people after this, is insult and mockery. But why is it 
that the corrupt act of the Representative is not biliding on 
the people ? For this plain reason, the corruption of the 
Kepresentative must precede the corrupt act ; the moment 
he has betrayed his constituents, all ties and connection 
between them are dissolved, and he is no more capable of 
binding them than the merest stranger. Any other doctrine 
makes Republican government a farce — makes morality 
and religion idle sound. If corruption can divest the estate 
of the people, it can do any other act — it can legalize 
murder, robbery, treason — it can give universal license to 
crime. I say, therefore, that if the Legislature of Georgia 
had constitutional power to sell, it could not sell fraudu- 
lently and corruptly. The Yazoo act was merely void, and 
the rescinding act which declared it so, was only form ; the 
people were in possession, continued in possession, and 
were not divested by it. 

3rdly. If, notwithstanding the fraud and corruption, an 



Chap. IV.] ANOTHER SPEECH ON THE YAZOO FRAUD. 75 

estate did vest in the grantees, yet, the claimants having 
notice of the fraud, are, according to the decision of the 
Supreme Court itself, gnilty purchasers, without claim or 
shadow of claim. I say, sir, the claimants had notice. 
Let it be remembered, Mr. Speaker, that our government 
differs from all other governments in this singular but 
valuable characteristic — it is limited by written constitu- 
tions. In other countries it is said the acts or the gi ants of 
the government speak for themselves — nothing shall be 
admitted to contradict them. Not so in our country ; every 
act or grant of the government must be consistent with the 
written constitution. Every man is presumed to carry the 
constitution in his head or in his pocket, that he may at 
all times be ready to compare the acts of government with 
the constitution. If the claimants had done this, if they 
had compared the Yazoo act with the constitution of 
Georgia, they would have found no power in the constitu- 
tion authorizing the Legislature to sell, and this circum- 
stance alone would have put them upon their guard — at 
least, this would have been the eifect on all rational and 
prudent men. 

But there was cause of suspicion on the very face of the 
act itself. The Legislature sold fifty millions of acres of as 
fine a country as any on the globe, for five hundred thou- 
sand dollars. Would not prudent men, looking at this 
single fact, have inquired how comes this? Would not 
prudent men, about to embark in a speculation so enormous, 
have thought it worth their while to send an agent from 
Boston tp Georgia, to scrutinize and investigate the merits 
of this transaction ? But, sir, these are circumstances to 
excite suspicion only. The people of Georgia themselves 
gave to the claimants the most prompt, direct and unex- 
ceptionable notice. Remember that more than a year 
elapsed between the passage of the Yazoo act and the 
purchase by the claimants. The events Avhich followed 
the passage of the Yazoo act j)ortended a revolution in 
Georgia, as terrible and as bloody as the revolution of 
Paris or of La Vendee. If the claimants had lived in the 
farther India, if they had lived in the islands of the Pacific 
Ocean, they would have received notice long before they 
purchased. Scarce had the Yazoo act passed the Legisla- 
ture, when the whole country was in a ferment. The great 
body of the people, who, unlike their Representatives, re- 
mained uncorrupted and faithful to themselves, were 
everywhere in motion to counteract the projects of the 
traitors. Their grand juries and committees everywhere 



^(5 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IV. 

denounced the act a usurpation, called upon the country 
to assert its rights, and to put down the corruption and the 
corrupted. General Jackson — sir, I cannot think of Gen. 
Jackson without speaking of him as a man of rare patriot- 
ism and integrity — a man who, if he had lived in the days 
of Rome's greatness, or, rather, of Rome's virtue, would 
have had his bust in the Capitol — I speak of him thus, be- 
cause his memory is intimately connected with this trans- 
action ; he was the only man I ever did know who was at 
all times ready to lay down his life, to sacrifice his wife and 
children and his fortune, to his country. General Jackson 
was at that time a Senator in Congress at Philadelphia ; he 
was called by the people of Georgia, publicly called, from 
his seat in Congress to aid in rescinding the usurped act — 
he obeyed. The address of the people and his answer were 
published in all of the newspapers of the day. A man by 
the name of Thomas, one of the corrupted Senators, was 
murdered in his own house, that he, together with his testi- 
mony, (for he bore witness to the corruption and threatened 
to confess,) might be consigned to oblivion. By some it 
was said the speculators had murdered him, by others that 
his indignant constituents had done the deed. The truth 
is that the greatest efforts were necessary to restrain the 
people from acts of violence. Now, sir, all these things 
were done, not in secret to deceive the innocent purchasers 
of New England; they were done publicly and in the face 
of day ; they were published in all the newspapers of the 
time, from Boston to Savannah ; and yet these things were 
to the innocent purchasers of New England as if they had 
never been. Yes, sir, if you believe the claimants, they 
were as ignorant of them as the people of Crim Tartary. 
They tell you they never read newspapers. The mail 
running weekly between Boston and Savannah — the coast- 
ing trade open — and yet the claimants are innocent pur- 
chasers ; for one whole year they heard not a word of what 
was passing in Georgia.' If the mails had been stopped, 
if the coasting trade had been interrupted, if all commu- 
nication had been cut off, this plea of ignorance might 
have been set up. In the then state of intercourse of the 
civilized world, if the claimants had lived in Batavia, they 
would have had notice long before they purchased. 

But there is other evidence of notice still more conclu- 
sive. On the ITth of February, 1795, that is to say six 
weeks after the passage of the Yazoo act, General Wash- 
ington sent to Congress a puldic message to the following 
efiect : 



Chap. IV.] ANOTHER SPEECH ON THE YAZOO FRAUD. 7Y 

" I have received copies of two Acts of the Legislature 
' of Georgia, one passed on the28tli of December, the other 
' on the fth January hast, for appropriating and selling the 
' Indian lands within the territorial limits claimed by tliat 
' State. These copies, thongh not officially certified, have 
' been transmitted to me in such a manner as to leave no room 
' to doubt their authenticity. These Acts embrace an obj ect 
' of such magnitude, and in their consequences may so 
' deeply affect the peace and welfare of the United States, 
'that I have thought it necessary now to lay them before 
' Congress.'' 

Here then was notice to all the world, notice at least 
that something was wrong. General Washington, from the 
elevation of his high office, standing as it were on the top 
of Mount Sinai, with an angel voice, reaching the extremi- 
ties of the earth, proclaimed, beware ! A more distinct, 
audible, universal notice could not have been given to all 
mankind. The claimants heeded no more the warning of 
General Washington than they did the barking of a foist. 
Congress referred the message to a committee. The com- 
mittee reported a resolution and bill authorizing the 
I Executive to extinguish the title of Georgia to the country 
! in question. With the Yazoo act before them, the com- 
mittee did not deign to speak of the sale to the claimants, 
but, treating the Yazoo act as null and void, proceeded to 
treat with Georgia for the extinguishment of her title. 
The claimants say they never heard of the proclamation of 
General Washington. They never read newspapers. 

But this is not all. The claimants stand convicted under 
their own hands and seals : they are guilty purchasers on 
the face of their own title deed. Not only did their title 
deed not contain a general warranty in their favor, it con- 
tained an express stipulation that in no event would they, 
the claimants, go back upon the grantees from w^hom the}^ 
purchased, for even the consideration money, on account 
of any defect in their title. Under their own hands and 
seals did the claimants covenant and agree that the 
grantees of whom they bought should not be liable to re- 
fund the purchase money, if their title turned out to be 
defective. Sir, this is a fact so extraordinary and incredi- 
ble, that if it were not recorded on the title deed itself, I 
would hesitate to declare it. It is without example in 
transactions between man and man. Do you not see, but 
for this, the claimants would have resorted to the original 
grantees for their purchase money, with interest and dam- 
ages ; that is to say, they would have resorted to the same 



78 I-IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IV. 

remedy as all other men do under like circumstances in 
every country ; they would have recovered their purchase 
money paid for a consideration which had failed, for a title 
which had proved defective, with interest and damages — 
they would, in fact, have had all the remedy to which in- 
nocent purchasers, without notice, are entitled by tire laws 
of any country ? But they precluded themselves by their 
own act and deed ; and, because they have done so, are we 
bound to indemnify them ? They have as much right to 
apply for indemnity to the Emperor of China. But there 
is another fact : the rescinding Legislature met in the be- 
ginning of January, '96 — the claimants purchased on the 
13th of February, '96 — on the opening of the Legislature, 
the preparatory motion was made to rescind the usurped 
act ; the claimants, therefore, had six weeks to inform 
themselves of what was doing and what was about to be 
done in the Georgia Legislature, before they purchased. 
But there is another fact, which ought to be conclusive on 
this point — a gentleman from Massachusetts, many years a 
member of this House, resident in the neighborhood of 
Boston, uniformly declared they had notice ; that gentle- 
man, respectable for his good sense and integrity, inti- 
mately acquainted with the parties, constantly passing in 
and from Boston, perfectly familiar with the circumstances 
of the purchase, constantly affirmed that he was himself 
knowing to the corruption of the Georgia Legislature at 
the date of the purchase, and that the claimants were as 
knowing to it as himself. Here, then, is the testimony of 
a disinterested man. You oppose to it the declarations of 
the interested claimants. The truth is, the claimants had 
knowledge of the fraud. Like other speculators, they 
bought to sell again • all they wanted was the wax and the 
parchment. They cared not a straw for anything else, for 
fraud and corruption, or defect of title ; if it answered the 
purpose of the grantees, it would answer the purpose of 
the claimants ; the claimants took the title deed for better, 
for worse, and if they had not known that Congress might 
be teased and worried out of anything, they never would 
have had the effrontery to set up a claim against you. 

But, it is said the commissioners reported in favor of a 
compromise. What docs this amount to ? No more than 
a report of a committee of the House, which you respect 
only as its merits entitle it to respect. The commissioners 
investigated the claims ; laid before you in all its naked- 
ness the fraud and corruption, from beginning to end, and 
came to the conclusion which no man of common sense 



GiiAP. IV.] ANOTHER SPEECH ON THE YAZOO FRAUD. 79 

could avoid, that the claimants had no title whatsoever. 
Here, sir, the commissioners ought to have stopped ; but, 
strange to say, they suggested to Congress the expediency 
of a compromise. What ! you ask, is it possible that such 
men as Mr. Madison, Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Lincoln, should 
have followed up such a conclusion by such a suggestion ? 
No title, and j^et recommend the compromise of a title ! 
Never were two propositions more inconsistent. You will 
say there must have been some reason for this. I will tell 
you the reason : it was the same reason that operated on the 
10th Congress to surrender the embargo — the clamor of a 
formidable part3^ The commissioners were surrounded by 
a host of claimants, as we are now ; they found them a 
troublesome set, growing every day stronger and stronger. 
They yielded — they said, though they have no title, yet 
you had better give them money and send them about their 
business. This is all that can be said now. 

But, it has been alleged that the United States have en- 
gaged to compromise. Not so. The United States are as 
free to compromise, or not to compromise, as if nothing- 
had been said or done on the subject. It is said that the 
United States are bound to compromise, because five mil- 
lions were set apart by the articles of agreement and 
cession, for the indemnification of these and other claims. 
True ! But on condition only, that Congress should, upon 
an investigation of the claims, believe that in right and 
justice they ought to be compensated. The history of this 
part of the business is simply this : When the commission- 
ers of the United States and of Georgia were negotiating 
the terms of purchase of the Mississippi Territory, the 
claimants got about them and harrassed them with inces- 
sant importunity. The commissioners of the United States 
said to the commissioners on the part of Georgia, You see 
how we are embarrassed by these claimants ; will it not 
be better to quiet them, by making a reservation in their 
favor? Never! indignantly answered the Georgia com- 
missioners ; we will never consent to compromise the 
infamous corruption. But, said the commissioners of the 
United States, will you not agree to make a conditional 
reservation, leaving it to the United States to make them 
compensation, or not, upon an investigation of the merits 
of their claim? To this the commissioners of Georgia 
could have no objection ; it was a matter for the United 
States. They did object, however, to give any pledge 
whatsoever to compromise the claim. Nay, more ; they 
insisted that if Congress did not within a year set apart the 



so ' LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUr, [Chap. IV. 

live millions of acres, it sliould never be in the power of 
Congress to compensate them at all, nnder any circum- 
stances. The commissioners on the part of Georgia said to 
' the commissioners of the United States : If the United 
States choose, at any time, to compromise this corruption, 
we cannot help it; but we will never give our sanction or 
countenance to it, because we believe the claim unfounded in 
right, justice or morality ; if you, upon investigation, think 
otherwise, here are the live millions of acres set apart, out 
of which you may'compensate ; if you can, even in foro 
conscientke, consent to compromise this corruption, be the 
shame and scandal of it upon you. The United States did, 
according!}^, within one year set apart the live millions of 
acres to compensate this and other claims, but upon the 
same conditions and in the same words as the articles of 
agreement and cession ; that is to say, upon condition that 
the United States,'?upon an investigation of the merits of 
the claims, should determine they were founded in right 
and justice. The question is now, as it has always been, 
are the claims founded in right and justice? 

But to remove every impression that the United States 
are pledged in the remotest degree, I refer you to Mr. 
Gallatin himself, and to the report of a committee of the 
House, at the last session. Mr. Gallatin, in his letter ad- 
dressed to Mr. Dana, the chairman of the Yazoo Committee, 
dated 9th January, 1805, says, (speaking of the object of 
the reservation of the live millions,) " to leave it in their 
' power to compromise with that description of claimants, 
' by allowing so much of the surplus of live millions of 
' acres as they might think proper, without, at the same 
' time, pledging Government to enter into a compromise, 
' if, upon a full view of all the circumstances of the case, a 
' dift'erent course was thought more eligible.'' Thus you 
see, according to Mr. Gallatin, the United States are at 
perfect liberty to compromise, or not, at their discretion, as 
if no articles of agreement and cession had ever been en- 
tered into ; as if no law had ever been passed setting apart 
the live millions of acres. Your committee appointed on 
this subject at the last session of the last Congress, say the 
same thing. Their language is, " Congress is not bound 
' to compromise, if, upon an investigation of the merits of 
' the claims, they shall be found unsupported by right and 
'justice." The assertion,'^ therefore, that the Government 
is pledged, is a mere pretext, as is every other reason as- 
signed for the compromise. 

But it is contended that the Supreme Court have decided 



Chap. IV.] ANOTHER SPEECH ON THE YAZOO FRAUD. si 

in favor of the claimants and against the United States ; 
that it is better to give up a part than to lose the whole. 
Sir, there is no danger of onr losing the whole or a part, if 
we will do our duty to ourselves and to the country. The 
Supreme Court cannot decide the rights of the United 
States in a case to which the United States not only were 
not a party, but to which they cannot, by any constitution- 
al possibility, be a party without their consent. The case 
of Fletcher and Peck was a decision of a feigned issue, 
made up between two speculators, to decide certain points, 
in the decision of which they were interested. "Will any 
man, in his senses, say that the right of the United States 
to the public property could be aifected by such decision ? 
This doctrine is almost as shocking as the oiher doctrine set 
up in support of the compromise — the representatives of 
the people may betray the people, and the people are with- 
out remedy. I trust, sir, that neither the one nor the other 
will be countenanced by you ; but that you will, without 
hesitation, reject the lull. ' Whenever it is conceded that it 
is competent to the Supreme Court, in a case between A 
and B, to take from the United States fifty millions of acres 
of land, it will be time for the Government to make a vol- 
untary surrender of the public property to whosoever will 
have it. The public property would be nothing but an 
expense, an incumbrance, which it would be prolitable to 
shake off with as little delay as possible, No, sir; the 
Government is the guardian, the trustee, of the public pro- 
perty. Like all governments, they must of necessity 
determine their own rights of property ; and if thejM-emain 
faithful to those rights, all the decisions of all the judicial 
tribunals under Heaven cannot deprive you of a square 
acre of the public land. But, sir, I am tired and disgusted 
with this subject. I hope the bill will be rejected. 

The bill was not rejected. It had previously passed the 
Senate, by a vote of twenty-four to eight — the two Senators 
from Georgia, Messrs. Bibb and Tait, having voted against 
it— and on the 26th March, 181-i, after several slight amend- 
ments, it passed the House, by a vote of eighty-four to 
seventy-six — the Kepresentatives from Georgia, Messrs. 
William Barnett, Alfred Cuthbert, John Forsyth, Boiling 
Hall, Thomas Telfair and George M. Troup, voting against 
it. The act was approved by the President on the 31st of 
the same month. 
11 



S2 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IV. 

These votes sliow the unanimity of the people of Georgia 
against a compromise of these claims. They, as well as 
their Representatives, believed that the honor of the conn, 
try required that the claims should not be acknowledged 
or comjDromised. The case was a novel one ; but it is be- 
lieved that if ever a great public exigency demanded a 
refusal of any sort of claims, or pretended claims, this was 
it. The evidence contained in the previous portion of this 
chapter, appears conclusive on this point. Nevertheless, 
in addition to the report of the United States Commission- 
ers, Messrs. Madison, Gallatin and Lincoln, stating their 
belief " that the interest of the United States, the tran- 
quillity of those who may hereafter inhabit the (Mississippi) 
Territory, and various equitable considerations which may 
be urged in favor of the present claimants, render it expe- 
dient to enter into a compromise on reasonable terms " ; 
two several committees of the House had reported to the 
same effect, from the last of which (15th March, ISl-i,) we 
make the following extract : 

The committee have had the subject of the said (Senate) 
bill under their consideration, and are of opinion that it is 
expedient for the government of the United States to enter 
into a compromise with the persons claiming lands in the 
Mississippi Territory, under and by virtue of the act of the 
Legislature of Georgia, of the 7th January, 1795. The 
reasons for this opinion do not rest on the strict legality 
of the title of these claimants to the lands in question — 
though the committee cannot forbear remarking that that 
title appears to have all the sanction which can be derived 
from a solemn decision of the highest judicial tribunal 
known to our laws — they are grounded on considerations 
connected ' with the permanent interests of the United 
States, as they relate to the Mississippi Territory ; with the 
quiet and speedy settlement of that Territory ; with the 
more easy extinguishment of the Indian title to the lands 
contained in it ; with the security against all future Indian 
wars in that quarter, which the settlement of the Territory 
must afford ; with the extensive navigation connecting 
parts of the Western States with the Ocean, which must 
be opened when the population of the Territory shall be 
adequate to such an object, and with the strength and 



Chap. IV.] REPORT OF COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS. S3 

safety which such a population must confer on the Louisi- 
ana portion. It may, in addition, be remarked tliat there 
are equitable considerations connected with the present 
claims, which, in the opinion of the committee, strongly 
recommend them to the favor of Congress. Although the 
original act of the State of Georgia might have been pro- 
cured by fraudulent and corrupt means, it satisfactorily 
appears to the committee, as far as their inquiries have 
been extended, that the present claimants, or those under 
whom they hold, were bona fide purchasers of the imme- 
diate grantees of Georgia, without notice of any fraud or 
corruption in the original grant. 

The part of the above extract which we have italicized, 
shows that the adjustment was recommended more on 
the idea of a compromise, than on any view of the strict 
rights of the claimants. It was, perhaps, well for the peace 
of the country that the controversy had been transferred 
from Georgia to Washington City, and that the United 
States, in a moment of generosity, could not, and pretended 
not to, exhibit that generosity at the expense of Georgia 
more than of any other of the States, A people that had 
destroyed the record evidence of their betrayal, would 
hardly have made provision for claimants, the hona fides of 
whose titles was, at least, questionable, and the assertion 
of which title caused patriatic Georgians to recoil with 
horror at the name of a transaction which threatened to 
undermine representative government. Georgia had not 
been heard before any judicial tribunal; she could never 
have been made a party there without a sacrifice of her 
dignity ; but there was no time when she could not, with 
safety to her honor, trust her cause in the hands of her 
faithful Representatives, foremost among whom was 
George M. Troup. 

The bill,-^ as it finally passed, provided for settling the 
claims, under the provisions and restrictions therein men- 
tioned, in the following proportions : 

' The reader is referred, for further information on the subject of this bill and the 
acts amendatory thereof, to the United States Statutes at Large, Vol. 3, pp. 116, 117, US, 
119, 120, 192, 190, 235, 230, 29i, 295.— Ed. 



84r LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IV. 

To the persons claiming in the name or under the Upper 
Mississippi Company, - - g 350,000 

Tennessee Company, .... 600,000 

Georgia Mississippi Company, - - 1,550,000 

Georgia Company, - ... 2,250,000 

Citizens' Eights, - - - - 250,000 

Making an aggregate of * - - - $5,000,000 



Chap V.] RE-ELECTION TO CONGRESS. 85 



CHAPTER V. 

Re-Election to Congress. — State of our Foreign Relations. — 
Preparations for War. — Colonel Trovp's Course. — Bank of 
the United States, dr. 

In October, 1808, Colonel Troup was re elected to Con- 
gress, and on the 22d day of May, 1809, took his seat in the 
House of Representatives as a member of the eleventh 
Congress. His colleagues, as in the previous Congress, 
Avere William W. Bibb, Dennis Smelt and Howell Cobb. 

Mr. Madison had been inaugurated President of the 
United States. In his opening message at the special ses- 
sion then begun, the President said: " On this first occasion 
of meeting you, it affords me much satisfaction to be able 
to communicate the commencement of a favorable change 
in our foreign relations, the critical state of which induced 
a session of Congress at this early period.'' 

On the first of March, 1809, the retiring President, Mr. 
Jefferson, had approved an Act " to interdict the commer- 
cial intercourse between the United States and Great 
Britain and France, and their dependencies, and for other 
purposes," by which commerce with those nations was 
closed, and the entrance of the harbors and waters of the 
United States interdicted to all public vessels belonging to 
those nations, or private vessels sailing under the flag of 
either, except vessels forced in by distress or charged with 
dispatches from the government to which they belonged, 
&c. ; but with authority to the President, " in case either 
France or Great Britain shall so revoke or modify her 
edicts as that they shall cease to violate the neutral 
commerce of the United States, to declare the same by 
proclamation ; after which, the trade of the United States, 
suspended by this act, and by the act laying an embargo on 
all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United 
States, and the several acts supplementary thereto, may be 



86 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [CnAr. V. 

renewed witli tlic nation so doing '' ; and, by the last section 
of which, it was provided that said non-intercourse act 
should continue in force until the end of the then next ses- 
sion of Congress, when the embargo acts were, by the same 
section, to expire. 

The message continued to say : "In consequence of the 
provisions of the act interdicting commercial intercourse 
with Great Britain and France, our ministers at London 
and Paris were without delay instructed to let it be under- 
stood by the French and British governments, that the 
authority vested in the executive to renew commercial in- 
tercourse with their respective nations, would be exercised 
in the case specified by that act. Soon after these instruc- 
tions were dispatched, it was found that the British govern- 
ment, anticipating, from early proceedings of Congress at 
the last session, the state of our laws, which has had the 
effect of placing the two belligerent powers on a footing 
of equal restrictions, and relying on the conciliatory dispo- 
sition of the United States, had transmitted to their legation 
here, provisional instructions, not only to offer satisfaction 
for the attack on the frigate Chesapeake, and to make 
known the determination of his Britannic majesty to send 
an envoy extraordinary with powers to conclude a treaty on 
all the points between the two countries, but, moreover, to 
signify his willingness, in the meantime, to withdraw his 
orders in council, in the persuasion that the intercourse 
with Great Britain would be renewed on the part of the 
United States. These steps of the British government led 
to the corres2)oudence and the proclamation now laid before 
you, by virtue of which the commerce between the two 
countries will be rencAved after the 10th day of June next." 

The sequel shows that these anticipations were not to be 
realized. 

During this session. Colonel Troup, although not a fre- 
quent, was an occasional, speaker ; but there is nothing in 
the reports of his speeches which makes it important to 
transcribe what he said. 

[1809.] On the second day of the session he was placed 
upon the committee on Elections ; and, on the 26th May, 
upon the committee on Foreign Relations. Congress ad- 
journed on the 28th day of June, the most important act 
of the session being " An Act to amend and continue in 



Chap. V.] STATE OP OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS. 87 

force certain parts of the Act, entitled ' An Act to inter- 
dict the commercial intercourse between the United States 
and Great Britain and France, and their dependencies, and 
for other purposes ' ; " of which it is only necessary to say 
that it modified the non-intercourse act of 1st March, in 
conformity with what seemed to be a returning sense of 
justice on the part of Great Britain, and with what was 
hoped from that country and France in regard to their 
previous policy towards the United States. 

The act was approved by the President on 28th June. 
On the passage of the act, Colonel Troup was not present, 
and therefore gave no vote. 

[1809.] Congress assembled again on 27th ISTovember. 

Colonel Troup was re-appointed on the committee on 
Elections, and was also placed upon the committee on Post 
Offices and Post Roads. 

On the 29th of ISTovember, the President sent in his an- 
nual message to the two Houses, from which the following 
extracts are made, showing the change which had come 
over the aspect of our foreign relations : 

" At the period of our last meeting, I had the satisfaction 
of communicating an adjustment with one of the principal 
belligerent nations, highly important in itself, and still 
more so as presaging a more extended accommodation. 
It is with deep concern I am now to inform you that the 
favorable prospect has been overclouded by a refusal of the 
British Government to abide by the act of its Minister 
Plenipotentiary, and by its ensuing policy towards the 
United States, as seen through the communications of the 
Minister sent to replace him. Whatever pleas may be 
urged, for a disavowal of engagements formed by diplo- 
matic functionaries in cases where by the terms of the 
engagements a mutual ratification is reserved, or where 
notice at the time may have been given of a departure from 
instructions, or in extraordinary cases essentially violating 
the principles of equity, a disavowal could not have been 
apprehended in a case where no such notice or violation 
existed, where no such ratification was reserved, and more 
especially where, as is now in proof, an engagement, to be 
executed without any such ratification, was contemplated 



88 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. V. 

by the instructions given, and where it had, with good 
faith, been carried into immediate execution on the part of 
the IJnited States. These considerations not having re- 
strained the British government from disavowing the en- 
gagement by virtue of which its orders in council were to 
be revoked, and the event authorizing the renewal of com- 
mercial intercourse having thus not taken place, it neces- 
sarily became a question of equal urgency and importance, 
whether the act prohibiting that intercourse was not to be 
considered as remaining in legal force. This question 
being, after due deliberation, determined in the affirma- 
tive, a proclamation to that effect was issued. It could not 
but happen, however, that a return to this state of things, 
from that which had followed an execution of the arrange- 
ment by the United States, would involve difficulties. 
"With a view to diminish these as much as possible, the in- 
structions from the Secretary of the Treasury, now laid 
before you, were transmitted to the collectors of the several 
ports. If, in permitting British vessels to depart without 
giving bonds not to proceed to their own ports, it should 
appear that the tenor of legal authority has not been 
strictly pursued, it is to be ascribed to the anxious desire 
which was felt that no individuals should be injured by so 
unforeseen an occurrence ; and I rely on the regard of 
Congress for the equitable interests of our ov*ai citizens, to 
adopt whatever further provisions may be found requisite 
for a general remission of penalties involuntarily incurred. 
The recall of the disavowed minister - having been follow- 
ed by the appointment of a successor f, hopes were in- 
dulged that the new mission would contribute to alleviate 
the disappointment which had been produced, and to 
remove the causes which had so long embarrassed the 
good understanding of the two nations. It could not be 
doubted that it would at least be charged with conciliatory 
explanations of the steps which had been taken, and with 
proposals to be substituted for the rejected arrangement. 
Heasonable and universal as this expectation was, it also 
has not been fultilled. From the first official disclosures of 
the new minister, it was found that he had received no 
authority to enter into explanations relative to either branch 
of the arrangement disavowed, nor any authority to sub- 
stitute proposals as to that branch which concerned the 
British orders in council; and, finally, that his proposals 
with respect to the other branch, the attack on the frigate 

* Mr. Erskine.— £d. t Mr. Jackson.— Er. 



Ciup. v.] STATE OF OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS. 89 

Chesapeake, were fonndecl on a presumption repeatedly 
declared to be inadmissible by the United States, that the 
first step towards adjustment was due from them; the pro- 
posals at the same time omitting even a reference to the 
officer " ansvf erable for the murderous aggression, and as- 
serting a claim not less contrary to the British laws and 
British practice, than to the principles and obligations of 
the United States. The correspondence between the de- 
partment of State and this minister, will show how essen- 
tially the features presented in its commencement have 
been varied in its progress. It will show also, that, forget- 
ting the respect due to all governments, he did not refrain 
from imputations on this, which required that no further 
communications should be received from him. The neces- 
sity of this step will be made known to his Britannic 
majesty through the minister plenipotentiary of the United 
States at London. And it would indicate a want of the 
confidence due to a government which so well understands 
and exacts what becomes foreign ministers near it, not to 
infer that the misconduct of its own representative will be 
viewed in the same light in which it has been regarded 
here. The British government will learn, at the same time, 
that a ready attention will be given to communications 
through any channel which may be substituted. It will be 
happy if the change in this respect should be accompanied 
by a favorable revision of the unfriendly policy which has 
been so long pursued towards the United States." 

We have thus made copious extracts from the message, 
in order to show generally the true state of the relations 
between the two countries. To go into details would re- 
quire an examination into the diplomatic history of the 
times, and the foreign policy of the government. Enough 
has been said to shed light on the subjects of a national 
character in the discussion of which Colonel Troup took 
part, and on which we shall soon permit him to speak for 
himself. We have seen that as early as October, 1807, he 
believed the chances of loar^ heijond all com;parison^ greater 
than those of jpeace. But things had now reached a point 
where even the cautious policy of Mr. Madison failed to 
avert the inevitable consequence of British denial of '-'-free 

* Admiral Berkeley.— Ed. 

12 



90 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUF. [Ciup. V. 

trade and sailors' rights.'^ Preparation — actual prepara- 
tion — for war, was now necessary, and for this the Kepnb- 
lican party set about in earnest. 

Early in the session, 

Mr, Troup begged leave to submit to the consideration 
of the House, several resolutions, which had for their object 
the vindication of the commercial rights of the United 
States, against the belligerent nations of Europe. He sub- 
mitted them at this time, with less reluctance, because the 
introduction of them was in no wise inconsistent with the 
most friendly negotiations which might be pending with 
foreign governments. It is high time, said Mr. T., in my 
opinion, that these commercial rights were either vindicated 
or abandoned. The remnant of commerce which the joint 
operation of the belligerent decrees has left to us, is scarce- 
ly worth carrying on. To designate what this little is, 
would be no difficult matter, but it would be superfluous ; 
every one that hears me understands it. 

But, it would be well to inquire on what principle the 
belligerents pretend to justify these commercial restric- 
tions l The avowed principle is retaliation, but is it the 
true principle ? Unquestionably not. And why ? Be ■ 
cause it is equally asserted by both belligerents. Both 
cannot be retaliators ; one must be the aggressor, the other 
the retaliator. If this principle, then, be equally urged 
by both, who is to judge between them? If the alleged 
principle of retaliation be not the true one, what is? As 
respects France, the true principle of her decrees is to be 
sought in the policy of embarrassing England by excluding 
from the continent British merchandise ; and as to Great 
Britain, the principle of her Orders in Council may be 
found in the consideration of her interest and her power. 
She avowedly contends that it is her interest to engross the 
commerce of tlie world ; that she has the power to engross 
it, and, therefore, she will engross it. 

But, what are the principles more specifically asserted 
by Great Britain ? First, the right of blockade by procla- 
mation ; second, the right to turn your vessels into her 
ports to pay duty and take out a license. This right of 
blockadins: bv proclamation is not a ri^ht ffrowina: out of a 
state ol war ; it is no belligerent right ; it is a pretension, 
as applicable to a state of peace as to a state of war, and if 
we submit to it in a state of war, we must submit to it in a 
state of peace. The only principle of blockade which we 
recognize, is that which gives to belligerents a right to turn 



Chap, v.] MR. TROUFS SPEECH. 91 

from ports so closely invested as to make the entry of them 
dangerous ; and, after due warning, vessels bound to them. 
But the right asserted by Great Britain to blockade by a 
piece of parchment or paper, issued from her council 
chamber, a port or ports, a kingdom or kingdoms, a conti- 
nent or continents, is a right no more relative to a state of 
Avar than to a state of peace ; and, if we submit to the pre- 
tension in a state of war, we must equally submit to it in a 
state of peace. It is founded on the most arbitrary tyran- 
ny, it goes to the annihilation of your commerce. As to 
the other right, of forcing our vessels into her ports, to pay 
duty and take out license, this is equally applicable to a 
state of peace as to a state of war. We acknowledge the 
right of Great Britain, or any other nation, to shut her ports 
against us, provided there be no treaty stipulation to the 
contrary. But the right of Great Britain or of France to 
shut the ports of any other nation against us, is a right no 
more appertaining to a belligerent than to a neutral. If 
v/e submit to it in Avar, we must equally submit in peace ; 
and this right, like the other, is founded in the most arbi- 
trary tyranny. What right has Britain to tyrannize on the 
ocean, and prescribe limits to our trade ''■ She Avill not 
permit to us a trade which she cannot herself enjoy. She 
prohibits to us a trade which our government permits, be- 
cause it is her interest to monopolize it. It is equally our 
interest to monopolize, and, therefore, if you please, sir. Ave 
will prohibit the trade which her government permits, and 
which it is our interest to monopolize. 

If Great Britain can rightly prohibit our trade, because 
it is her interest to prohibit it, have Ave not the right to 
prohibit her trade for the sfime reason ? If she, with right 
and justice, can stop and seize and confiscate our vessels be- 
cause they attempt a trade which she forbids, and only 
because she forbids it, cannot our goA^ernment do the same 
in relation to her trade ? If she c^an turn our vessels mto 
her ports to pay duty and take out license, what prohibits 
us from doing the same as to her vessels ? England is a 
nation, so are we. England is independent, so are Ave. 
What prohibits us from doing to England Avhat England 
does to us? Unquestionably" nothing. To say that Ave 
have no right to do to England Avhat^England does to us, 
is to acknowledge our inferiority ; it is to acknowledge that 
she may demand without hesitation, and that Ave are under 
obligation to submit without hesitation. 

I am aware that it may be objected to the resolutions 
that the adoption of them would lead to hostility ; but the 



92 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. V. 

same objection is equally applicable to any resolution 
which would go to the vindication of our commercial 
rights. They ought not to lead to hostility; they are 
merely retaliatory. They follow the spirit of the British 
Orders in Council and French Decrees, and therefore can- 
not be complained of by either power. There is a great 
and profitable commerce, and rapidly increasing, passing 
not indeed before our doors, but near enough to make the 
capture of vessels engaged in it convenient to us, which 
the resolutions have chiefly in view. I allude to the Brazil 
and Spanish Main trade. 

Is it not matter of surprise, that a commerce so profitable, 
so extensive, and so convenient, should have been permit- 
ted to a Government which permits no commerce to us but 
what her convenience and her interest suggest ? Is it not 
strange that we should have suffered that Government to 
participate in a commerce which both our interest and our 
convenience stimulate us to engross? But, above all, is 
it not inexplicable that we should passively have suffered 
the monopoly of it by her, when we ourselves were willing 
and able to engross it ? The House will perceive, on the 
face of the resolutions, that, as they regard France, they 
are not equivalent to a war measure — neither by a war 
measure, nor by that which I have the honor to submit, 
can we come in contact with France ; she has no commerce 
on the ocean. In relation to England, it is short, infinitely 
short of war ; because by war her continental colonies 
would fall ; her West India Islands would be distressed, 
and our privateers would cut up her commerce ; but the 
resolutions propose merely to retort the evils of her own 
injustice, to do to her what, and no more than Avhat, she 
has done to us. Reserving, for another occasion, any further 
remarks, I beg leave to read the resolutions to the House. 

Mr. T. then read the following resolutions : 
Resolved, That it is expedient to authorize the President, 
by law, to instruct the commanders of the armed vessels of 
the United States to stop and bring into the ports of the 
same, all shijDS or vessels, with their cargoes, the property of 
the subjects of the King of Great Britain and of the Empe- 
ror of France, bound to ports other than those within the 
dominions or colonies of either. 

Besolmd, That it is expedient further to authorize by law 
the detention of all ships or vessels, with their cargoes, the 
property of the subjects of the King of Great Britain, until 
the duties to be regulated and ascertained by law shall be 



Chap. V.] HIS RESOLUTIONS. 93 

first levied and collected Tipon the goods and mercliandise 
whereof the said ships or vessels shall be laden, and until 
the said ships or vessels shall have received due license to 
depart. 

Mesolved, That it is expedient further to authorize by law 
the detention of all ships or vessels, with their cargoes, the 
property of the subjects of the Emperor of France, brought 
within the ports of the United States, there to abide the 
final decision or order of Government in relation to the 
same. 

Resolved, That an ad valorem duty of be levied 

and collected on all the goods, wares or merchandise, of 
British product or manufacture. 

Besolved, That it is expedient further to authorize the 
President, on payment of the duties authorized to be levied 
and collected on the goods laden on board vessels the 
property of the subjects of the King of Great Britain, 
forthwith to grant a license to such vessels to depart and 
to proceed to the port of original destination, without further 
hinderance or molestation. 

The House having agreed to consider these resolutions, 

On motion of Mr. Troup, they were ordered to lie on the 
table, as he stated, to give every member the same time to 
consider them as he had himself taken. 



It does not appear that the mover of these resolutions 
ever afterwards called them up. The country was not 
prepared for them. And yet, on a survey of the then ex- 
isting state of things, it is difficult to perceive why the 
measures indicated by them would not have been the best 
for the country. On principle, they would have given as 
good j)i'etext for a declaration of war by France, as by 
England, against the United States. In our defensive mode 
of conducting the war which did ensue, the former power 
could, without a navy, have inflicted but little injury on 
us, and there seems to have been no reason why we should 
not have been as well prepared for war with Great Britain 
in 1809 as in 1812. We had submitted to insult after in- 
sult, from that power ; our foreign commerce was almost 
annihilated by her ; and what little remained became well- 
nigh unavailable, because of the retaliatory measures 
to which our own government felt compelled to resort, 



94 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. V. 

whilst it was hesitating between an open declaration of 
war and a system of commercial restrictions ; or, rather, 
whilst, by a resort to the latter, it was weakening its own 
resources and creating discontents at home by measures 
more injm-ioiis to om- own people than detrimental to our 
enemies. Indeed, one serious ground of objection to the 
war, when at last it was declared, was that it came too late 
to avenge the wrongs of the country, and at a time when 
a large portion, of the people indulged still the vain hope 
that negotiation would do for us what we had not as yet 
tried by open hostilities. 

First and last, Colonel Troup was the open advocate of 
his country's rights ; and although he foresaw the impolicy 
or futility of mere commercial restrictions so long adhered 
to, yet, when the conflict came, it found him the same un- 
daunted supporter of a vigorous war, that he had been of a 
line of policy that would have hastened the crisis or have 
altogether averted it. His speeches and votes show that 
whilst he often differed from his political friends, in matters 
of detail, he never deserted the Administration of his 
choice, which was honestly endeavoring to promote the 
best good of the country. On 17th February, 1809, he had 
" condemned the proposed non-intercourse system as sub- 
mission, without even money in return for it," and on the 
27th of the same month he voted against the bill. His 
opinion was, as we have seen, that, short of more decided 
measures, the embargo, properly enforced, and followed up 
by a pertinent system of defence, was " the best for our 
situation which could have been devised." 

Having already referred to the general provisions of the 
non-intercourse act of 1st March, 1809, (which was amended 
and, as to certain parts of it, continued in force " until the 
end of the [then] next session of Congress," by the act of 
June 28, 1809,) we cannot do better than make the following 
extracts from a letter of Col. Troup to Gov. Mitchell, dated 

Washington, March 17, 1810. 
My Dear Sir : I offer you my sincere congratulation on 
your elevation to the chief magistracy, but especially on 



Chap. V.] LETTER TO GOV. MITCHELL. 95 

the prospect whicli is every day opening before you of 
uniting more various and stronger interests in your support 
than several of your immediate predecessors. The people 
of Georgia, if I understand them rightly, will only require 
the firmness and moderation and dignity with which you 
set out, to yield that support as liberally and as heartily 
as ever they accorded it to our old and excellent friend 
Jackson. ■• •'■ "'^' The Southern 

States require all the qualities which command respect, to 
oppose a successful resistance to the Eastern and mercan- 
tile interests in Congress. The rights of the former are 
every day shamefully sacrificed to the undue weiglit of the 
latter. By superior intelligence, by cunning, by stratagem, 
individuals are detached from the Southern and Western 
interests, and made to unite in measures which have for 
their object the prosperity merely of New England naviga- 
tion and fisheries. The rest call in vain for union and 
concert in behalf of the interests of Soutliern agi-iculture. 
The Yankees, with these stragglers, carry the day, and 
laugli in their sleeves at the zeal with which Georgia and 
South Carolina support all the measures of the general 
government. It is thus we have been saddled so long with 
non-intercourse, and It is thus that non-intercourse is pro- 
posed to be followed by another frivolous system of com- 
mercial restriction. I have long witnessed these projects 
with indignation, and seeing that in all of them nothing- 
was consulted but the local interests of the day, I too have 
looked to local interests. It is therefore that I have been 
for war or free commerce. The non-intercourse co-operates 
with the Orders of Council, 1st, to carry on a round-about 
trade with Great Britain in her own vessels ; 2dly, to pro- 
hibit all trade with France or Holland or Italy. The effect 
on us is to give to the British the monopoly of our cotton 
at eleven cents, and a monopoly of the supply of broad- 
cloths at fourteen dollars the yard. Whilst the Yankees 
can freight their vessels to smuggle British property into 
the continent, they care not two straws about the rest. 
The wheat-grower and the tobacco-planter have been doing 
well under the non-intercourse, and they too are content. 
This is the cause of our stupid perseverance in non-inter- 
course. Now it will be repealed, or suffered to expire on 
the close of the session. The Senate and House are at 
variance on Mr. Macon's Bill. In the conference, the man- 
agers of the Senate propose to incorporate the convoy 
principle ; the managers on our part dissent, but the report 
has not been acted on by either. The result is problemat- 



96 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. V. 

ical. As we lioiirlj ex]3ect to hear from our ministers at 
Paris and London, there is no desire to hurry the Bill — 
•i perhaps it is well. * '^' '^ '''■ 

With best wishes for you and yours, I am, my dear sir, 
Respectfully, your friend, 

Geo. M. Teoup. 

The bill, to which reference is made in this letter, had 
been reported by Mr. Macon, from the committee on For- 
eign Relations, as early as December 19th. The following 
was the substance of it : 

[1809.] The first section prohibited all public vessels of 
Great Britain or France from entering the harbors of the 
United States, subject to certain exceptions. The second 
section prescribed the punishment for violation of that 
provision. The third section prohibited all vessels sailing 
under the flag of Great Britain or France, or owned in 
whole or in part by any citizen of either, from entering the 
harbors of the United States. The fourth section prohib- 
ited the importation into the United ^States of goods from 
Great Britain or Ireland, and France, and their colonies, or 
of goods from any foreign port, the growth, product or 
manufacture of Great Britain or France, unless in vessels 
owned wholly by citizens of the United States. The above 
provisions to take immediate effect. The fifth section pro- 
hibited, after the 15th of April, the importation of goods 
from Great Britain and France, and their colonies, unless 
imported directly therefrom. The next three sections af- 
fixed penalties for infraction of these provisions. The ninth 
section authorized the President, in case either Great 
Britain or France so revoked or modified her edicts as to 
cease to violate the neutral commerce of the United States, 
to declare the same by proclamation ; after which, the pro- 
hibitions of the bill, on. the commerce of the nation so 
doing, should cease. The next section repealed the act of 
28th June. 1809, to amend and continue in force certain 
parts of the non-intercourse act of 1st March, 1809. The 
last section limited the operation of the act to the end of 
the then next session of Congress. 



Chap. V.] SPEECH ON NON-INTERCOURSE. §7 

In consequence of disagreement between the two Houses, 
the bill was finally lost. After sundry amendments, it had 
passed the House — all the Eepresentatives from Georgia 
voting for it, except Colonel Troup. In the debate on the 
disagreement of the two Houses, 

Mr. Troup remarked that gentlemen, in speaking of the 
bill as it went from this House, seemed to have forgotten 
the contents of that bill. It was spoken of as a bill full of 
resistance. If any such principle was contained in the bill, 
he had no recollection of it. If he recollected right, the 
part struck out proposed a direct commerce to the ports of 
the belligerents in our own vessels. Was this the principle 
of resistance ? He had thought that, last winter, non- 
intercourse was resistance. But it seemed that what was 
resistance then was submission now. If the Senate was 
disposed to resist in reality with cannon and ball, and there- 
fore would not take the milk-and-water resistance of this 
bill, he did not feel disposed to blame them. 

[1810.] On the question of insisting on the disagreement 
to the amendments of the Senate, Colonel Troup again 
voted in the negative — the rest of the Georgia delegation 
voting in the affirmative. The following speech, delivered 
on the 27th of March, will explain the reasons for his votes, 
and throw light on the subject under consideration. The 
question recurring on adhering to the disagreement to the 
Senate's amendments, 

Mr. Troup said, if it was the object of gentlemen to get 
rid of all commercial restrictions, they could only do so by 
concurring with the Senate. If they adhered, their object 
would indeed be defeated. The non-intercourse would be 
saddled on the country so long as the law continued in op- 
eration. Look at the sections of the bill as it went from 
this House, said Mr. T. It is true that one of these sections 
repeals the non-intercourse, but it is also true that another 
section substitutes a measure, which, if retaliated, must 
revive the non-intercourse in fact. ISIot only are these pro- 
visions inconsistent, but another section of the bill recog- 
nizes that inconsistency, and provides a remedy, by 
authorizing the President to execute the law within four 
leagues of the coast, by employing the public armed vessels 
of the United States to detect smugglers. Now, I say, sir, 
that the amendment of the Senate, which goes to the de- 
13 



98 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. T. 

struction of these sections, has for its object the destruction 
of the non-intercourse law. Sir, no man can contemplate 
the non-intercourse law in a light more serious as an evil 
to the people of this country, than myself. There never 
was a measure adopted more deleterious in its operation on 
the morals and interests of the people. The single effect 
of it has been to depreciate the staple commodity of the 
country at the rate of one hundred per cent., and exalt the 
British manufactures in the same ratio ; to make cotton sell 
at eleven cents a pound, and to make the growers of it j)ay 
fourteen dollars a yard for broadclotli. Look at the prac- 
tical operation of it. A cargo of cotton from a southern 
port is landed at Amelia Island .-' If British goods are 
there, ready for exchange, they are taken in exchange for 
the cotton, and smuggled into the country. If there be no 
goods there, they bring back no return, except the freight 
for the short navigation to Amelia Island. The cargo is 
landed, a duty of eight per cent, paid on it, besides com- 
missions, v&c, and a duty of eight or ten per cent, more on 
re-exportation, and what freight the British ship-holders 
choose to demand. This is not only the effect of the non- 
intercourse. It must be the effect of every system of 
commercial restriction short of the measure of embargo ; 
because all the penalties and sanctions which you can possi- 
bly devise for carrying that system into operation, must 
operate on a class without the reach of those penalties ; 
people who are without your j urisdiction ; people, too, Avho 
tell you, in the plainest language, they have no country, 
that they are governed l)y no sentiment of honor or princi- • 
pie of patriotism, that commercial gain is the sole object 
of their consideration, and that every other object will be 
sacrificed to it. Does not every day's experience apprise 
you that this is the truth i Look at the common practice 
and habits of those called ship-owners. Are they not 
every day lending their vessels to the British merchants for 
the purpose of violating the continental policy, to the 
French, the Dutch or any other merchants, for the purpose 
of violating the British Orders in Council, or to British and 
French merchants, for violating thelawsof their own coun- 
try ? And is it possible, sir, that you expect to execute, 
with any degree of success, a system which is to operate 
on the belligerents, when the penalties for a violation of 
the system are to operate on this class 'i It is impossible ; 
such a system must be futile and inefficient. Because, 
then, I am disposed to get rid of the non-intercourse and 

•■• Then a dependency of Spain. — Ed. 



Chap, v.] SPEECH ON NON-INTERCOURSE. 99 

every sort of commercial restriction, considering it injuri- 
ous only to ourselves, can it be said that I am disposed to 
submit to the orders and decrees of the belligerents ? No, 
sir ; those gentlemen have surrendered the rights and inter- 
ests of the country, who did originally submit to an aban- 
donment of the embargo. It is true now, and it was true 
then, that there was nothing between you and the British 
Orders in Council, but either embargo or war." You re- 
pealed the embargo, and refused to go to war, and now, as 
then, there is no remedy short of war or embargo. Pro- 
pose what other remedy you please, and it is only calculated 
to excite ridicule abroad. If you propose to convoy — 
what! it is asked, will you convoy a trade to every quarter 
of the globe with six, eight, or ten frigates t If you propose 
to arm the nierchantmen — what ! it is asked, will you arm 
your merchantmen against the British navy ? If we are to 
have neither embargo nor war, I, for one, am willing to get 
rid of the non-intercourse, and not substitute anything for 
it. To obtain this object, there is no mode left but to con- 
cur v\-ith the Senate in their amendments, and strike out 
those clauses which can have no other effect than to per- 
petuate the system of non-intercourse. 

In all this, Colonel Troup was consistent. Wo have seen 
that he opposed and voted against the repeal of the em- 
bargo. That he differed from a majority of both Houses 
and the President, is no evidence that he was wrong. In 
his conduct on this, as on all other subjects, we have the 
•highest evidence of an independent and self-relying spirit. 
Beyond its principles, party had no trammels for him. In 
the House, Dr. Bibb voted with Col. Troup, Dr. Smelt voted 
the other way — Mr. Cobb was absent. In the Senate, Gov. 
Milledge voted for the bill, and Mr. Crawford against it. 

During the session of 1809-10, the question of the re- 
charter of the Bank of the United States came before 
Congress. In the first section of the bill, there was a provi- 
sion that the President and Directors should " pay into the 
Treasury of the United States one million two hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars, as the ^y^'io^ OLi^fl equivalent for the 
renewal and continuance of their charter as aforesaid?'' 
On this subject, 

* Did not subsequent events fully justify this iireclictiou ? — Kl>. 



100 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. V. 

[1810.] Mr. Troup said gentlemen might pass the bill, 
but for the Constitutional question. If they did pass it. he 
hoped they would not permit themselves to become the 
retailing hucksters of the community for the sake of bank 
charters. In the name of common honesty, said he, I be- 
seech you, what power have you to sell a charter? There 
is power in the Constitution to sell the public property ; 
but there is certainly no power to sell privileges of any 
kind. I therefore move you to strike out the bribe, the 
douceur, the bonus, as gentlemen call it, of $1,250,000. 

On the same day, (April 21,) he spoke as follows : 
Mr. Troup said he forbore at present going into the 
question of constitutionality. He had no idea that he 
could, with any efficiency whatever, stand up on this floor, 
with such a weapon as an argument, to contend with a 
moneyed institution of ten millions. If I am not disposed 
to go into the general question of constitutionality, said he, 
I am as certainly indisposed to derive this power from the 
power to pass all laws necessary and proper. I am the 
more reluctant to do so, because it is a dangerous power, 
and ought not to be derived by implication. I say that the 
power is dangerous, for if it be conceded that the Congress 
of the United States have a right to erect a moneyed insti- 
tution with a capital of ten or twenty millions, it is compe- 
tent to erect one with a capital of one hundred milions. It 
may be competent, therefore, to the United States to raise 
a corporation more powerful than itself — a moi.eyed insti- 
tution which may absorb all the powers of the State. And 
this principle as a precedent will be more dangerous in this' 
case, because the temptation is so much greater in propor- 
tion to the amount of capital. I do contend that if the 
Constitution did intend to grant the power of chartering 
moneyed institutions, it did not intend to grant it for the 
purposes of speculation, and of speculation merely. Sell 
privileges ! Sell, for $1,250,000, the exclusive privilege of 
taking usurious interest on money ! I thought, sir, that 
the power of selling privileges and indulgences was exclu- 
sively the right and power of the Pope. I ask gentlemen 
on what authority they act ? On none of morality, certain- 
ly — but on what authority? On that of- the corrupt gov- 
ernment of England. Servile imitators' of England, we 
must have a national bank ! And why not an East India 
Company ? We could sell a charter, tomorrow, for millions. 
"VVe could sell chartered privileges for almost as much as 
we should choose to ask. If we become the retailers of 



Chap, V.] SPEECH 0^ THE U. S. BANK. IQX 

privileges, we shall go on to sell them till we overdo the 
business ; and when this great national sonrce of revenue, 
after becoming om* chief and only resource, had failed, to 
what resources for revenue should we be driven ? Is it not 
a very rational inference, that it will be to the sale of all 
privileges we can derive from the Constitution a power to 
dispose of? If, sir, on any occasion you would set up, in 
the market, privileges for sale to the highest bidder, even 
do so with respect to privileges of every description. You 
would no more hesitate to set up, for sale, privileges of no> 
bility than this privilege — but (I thank God !)the Constitu- 
tion has prohibited you. But for that, we would sell them 
now as we do bank privileges ; we should go on to make it 
our chief resource, till, by the cheapness of the title, we 
should destroy the value of the trade. If we can draw 
money into the Treasury, by bargain and sale of privileges, 
let it be understood that we shall continue to foster it as 
our chief national resource. Having done with internal 
and direct taxes of all descriptions, because we consider 
them oppressive, this sale of privileges will be made the 
chief national resource. 

I will add but one thing. The moment you accept this 
$1,250,000, you are bribed in the same manner as the 
British Parliament have sniiered themselves to be corrupted. 
Like them, we not only shamefully partake of the crime, but 
on our statute book acknowledge the fact. 

In continuation of the debate, the same day, and in reply 
to Mr. Key, of Maryland, 

Mr. Troup observed that the gentleman had said that 
the power to incorporate a bank was derived from the 
power to lay and collect revenue ; and that the power 
ought to be exercised, because banks give a facility to the 
collection of the revenue. If the power be exercised, it 
must be necessary and proper. If it be necessary to the 
collection of the revenue, the revenue cannot be collected 
without it. The gentleman from Maryland might say a 
bank institution was useful. He might say it would give 
facility to the collection of the revenue ; but facility and 
necessity are wholly diflPerent, and the Constitution says 
that a power, to be incidental, must be necessary and 
proper. If facility be a ground of action, we are greatly 
wide of the true policy. We ought to adopt that measure 
which shall give the greatest facility. The ingenious gen- 
tleman himself could sit down and in fifteen minutes devise 
half a dozen modes which would give infinitely more 



102 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. V. 

facility than a bank to the collection of the revenue. He 
might farm out the revenue ; establish farming districts ; 
put a farmer-general at the head of them, with a corps of 
Janizaries. The Secretary of the Treasury would have 
nothing to do but draw on him for a sum of money, and 
require it or his head. This, sir, is a plan which would 
give the greatest possible facility. You could command 
money of the farmer-general, or you could require his head. 
Himself and his Janizaries could always send the money ; 
or, if lie did not, the people and the Janizaries could send 
his head. 



Such is a synopsis of the argument against a Bank of 
the United States. Col. Troup was always opposed to the 
measure. It was enough for him to know that the question 
of Constitutional power was a doubtful one. His argument 
always was, in reference to a doubtful power, forhear to 
exercise it, eecatjse it is douhtful. Let those who pretend 
to believe that his doctrines, in their practical enforcement, 
lead to anarchy, remember that whilst he honestly believed 
the tendency of our federative system was towards con- 
solidation, he steadily maintained, practically and in theory, 
that the proper and only way to keep up the Constitutional 
equijDoise, was in adhering strictly to the letter of the 
compact, Avithout encroachment by the States or usurpation 
by the Federal Government. If he ever maintained any 
other doctrine, the fact is unknown to those who most 
closely watched his political career, and have since most 
honestly studied his recorded opinions. Such a system of 
government is that which the framers of the Constitution 
intended ; and he is the enemy of that instrument who 
would degrade the States to a blind and passive submission 
to any encroachment upon their rights which a corrupt or 
interested majority in Congress should choose to enact. 

Yielding to the pressure of the times, many honest men 
of the Republican party were led to support a National 
Bank — amongst others, the late President, Mr. Madison ; 
but Col. Troup was not in Congress when the act of incor- 
poration was passed in April, 1816 ; and his last recorded 



Chap. V.] SPEECH ON THE U. S. BANK. 103 

vote on that subject, in the House, ■•' was on the ITth day of 
February, 1815, when he voted, with the majority, to 
postpone indefinitely a bill to incorporate a Bank of the 
United States. 

[1810.J The second session of the Eleventh Congress 
closed on the 1st day of May. 

At the third session, which began on 3d December, Col. 
Troup was re-appointed on the committee on Elections, and 
was also placed on the standing committee on the Post 
Ofiice and Post Eoads. 

The President's Message showed that no improvement 
had occurred in the aspect of our relations with Great 
Britain and France. 

The most important act of the session was one entitled 
" An Act supplementary to the Act, entitled ' An Act con- 
cerning the commercial intercourse between the United 
States and Great Britain and France, and their dependen- 
cies, and for other purposes; '' the second section of which 
was as follows : 

" That, in case Great Britain shall so revoke or modify 
her edicts, as that they shall cease to violate the neutral 
of the United States, the President shall declare 



commerce 



the fact by proclamation ; and such proclamation shall be 
admitted as evidence, and no other evidence shall be ad- 
mitted of such revocation or modification in any suit or 
prosecution which may be instituted under the fourth sec- 
tion of the act to which this act is a supplement. And the 
restrictions imposed, or which may bo imposed, by virtue 
of the said act, shall, from the date of such proclamation, 
cease and be discontinued." 

[1811.] For this bill Col. Troup voted. He took, how- 
ever, little part in debate. The most important subject on 
which he spoke was the motion made on 21st January, to 
postpone indefinitely the consideration of the bill for re- 
chartering the Bank of the United States. 

* On the 11th day of June, 1832, Gov. Troup voted in the Senate against the re-charter 
of the United States Banlc; but the bill, having passed both Houses, was vetoed by President 
Jackson, on the 10th of July ; and, on the 13th of the same month, the question coming up 
whether the bill should become a law, notwithstanding the President-s objection, it was de- 
cided in the negative— Gov. Troup voting to sustain the President.— Ed. 



104: LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. V . 

Mr. Troup conceived the motion now made to be per- 
fectly proper. He felt, however, under no obligation to 
accommodate the bank. The act granting an act of incor- 
poration was entirely a voluntary act, and the duration of 
it limited in the act itself to a term of twenty years. If the 
bank had acted the part of an ordinary or discreet merchant, 
it would have taken care, before the expiration of its char- 
ter, to have Avound up its business and be prepared to meet 
the event ; because the Legislature was not bound to renew 
it, not having, either by the original charter, or by any 
subsequent act, given any pledge tliat it would do so. The 
bank not having received any pledge of renewal, ought to 
have been prepared for its dissolution. If the instiUition 
had done what it ought to have done, the Government, so 
far as it is concerned, would have prepared itself against 
the event, as he was told it was now about to do, by sub- 
stituting arrangements with the State banks for arrange- 
ments with the Bank of the United States or its branches. 
Mr. T. could therefore see no difficulty in assenting to this 
proposition, whether as respected the Government or as 
respected the individuals concerned in the Bank. 

On the 24th of January, the question was decided in the 
affirmative — yeas sixty-five, nays sixty-four — Col. Troup 
voting with the majority. 

The third and last session of the Eleventh Congress ter- 



Chap. VI.] RE-ELECTION TO CONGRESS. 105 



CHAPTER YI. 

Col. Troup' a Re-Elcction to Congress in 1810. — Stateoftlic Country. 
Declaration of War. — Course in Congress. 

In October, 1810, the people of Georgia elected, as then- 
Representatives in the Federal Legislature, William W". 
Bibb, Howell Cobb,* Boiling Hall and George M. Tronp. 
Col. Troup was at this time residing in Montgomery 
County. 

The first session of the Twelfth Congress began on the 
fourth day of November, 1811, pursuant to proclamation 
of the President ; and on that day the above named Repre- 
sentatives from Georgia took their seats in the House. 
The aspect of our foreign relations had not improved. 
In his opening Message, (Nov. 5,) the President said : 

" In calling you together sooner than a separation from 
your homes would, otherwise have been required, I yielded 
to considerations drawn from the posture of our foreign 
affairs ; and in fixing the present for the time of your meet- 
ing, regard was had to the probability of further develop- 
ments of the policy of the belligerent powers towards this 
country, which might the more unite the national councils 
in the measures to be pursued. At the close of the last 
session of Congress, it was hoped that the successive con- 
firmations of the extinction of the French decrees, so far 
as they violated our neutral commerce, would have in- 
duced the government of Great Britain to re] teal its orders 
in coimcil, and thereby authorize a removal of the exist- 
ing obstructions to her commerce with the United States. 
Instead of this reasonable step toward satisfaction and friend- 
ship between the two nations, the orders were, at a mo- 
ment when least to have been expected, put into more rig- 
orous execution ; and it was communicated through the 
British envoy just arrived, that while the revocation of 
the edicts of France, as ofiicially made known to the Brit- 
ish government, was denied to have taken place, it was an 

* Oa 27tli November, 1S12, WUliam Barnett took his seat in tlie House of Kepiesentatives, as 
a member of the Twelfth Con^-ess, in place of Howell Cobb, rcsignccl.— Ed. 

14 



106 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VI. 

indispensable condition of the repeal of the British orders 
that commerce should be restored to a footing that would 
admit the productions and manufactures of Great Britain, 
when owned bj neutrals, into markets shut against them 
by her enemy ; the United States being given to under- 
stand that, in the mean time, a continuance of their non- 
importation act would lead to measures of retaliation." 

After further enumeration, the message proceeded : 

" I must now add, that the period is arrived which claims 
from the legislative guardians of the national rights, a sys- 
tem of more ample provisions for maintaining them. Not- 
withstanding the scrupulous justice, the protracted moder- 
ation, and the multiplied efforts on the part of the United 
States, to substitute, for the accumulating dangers to the 
peace of the two countries, all the mutual advantages of 
re-established friendship and confidence, we have seen that 
the British cabinet perseveres not only in withholding a 
remedy for other wrongs, so long and so loudly calling for 
it, but, in the execution, brought home to the threshold of 
our territory, of measures which, under existing circum- 
stances, have the character as well as the effect of war on 
our lawful commerce. With this evidence of hostile in- 
flexibility in trampling on rights which no independent 
nation can relinquish. Congress will feel the duty of put- 
ting the United States into an armor and an attitude de- 
manded by the crisis, and corresponding with the national 
spirit and expectations." 

The Message then recommended, more in detail, such 
measures of preparation as the exigency of the times 
seemed to demand. 

Thus we see that the anticipations of Colonel Troup, in 
regard to the futility of the non-intercourse measures, eith- 
er in securing our rights or preventing a war, were about 
to be realized. But preparation for war required the rais- 
ing of means to carry on the war ; and this, except by the 
temporary expedient of a loan, could be done only by tax- 
ation. 

In answer to a letter of inquiry from the House committee 
of Ways and Means, the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. 
Gallatin, submitted on 10th January, 1812, an estimate of 
the amount, and the mode of raising a revenue, sufficient 
for the wants of the country. 



Chap. VI.] ANOTHER LETTER TO GOV. MITCHELL. 107 

And here it is proper to introduce a letter from Colonel 
Troup to Governor Mitcliell, altogether characteristic of 
the writer, and which shows his position and views in re- 
ference to the then state of public aftairs : 

WAsiimGTON, 12th February, 1812. 

Dear Sir : — I had the pleasure to receive your favor yes- 
terday. Your sentiments on our national affairs are always 
welcome. They are particularly so at this time. The pub- 
lic mind had proceeded, with slow step, from doubt to re- 
solution ; and when, at last, it settled in conviction, it was 
not to be supposed that anything short of the attainment of 
its object would have satisfied it. This may be true yet ; 
but it does not seem as palpably true now as a few weeks 
ago. To say that the retrograde step is commenced, or will 
be commenced, Avould be saying too much; but that the 
war mercury has sunk a little, nobody here can doubt. 
The letter of the Secretary of the Treasury has done this. 

What — ^you will ask — men ready to go to war who are 
not ready to vote taxes ? Yes ; the very name is more ter- 
rible than 50,000 British bayonets. But not so much the 
taxes : there is the excise, and the stamp, and the salt duty. 
We can get along without them ; loans are better ; Treas- 
ury notes are better than loans, &c., &c. Can a system 
grow out of this discordance ( 

There are only two alternatives : the expenses being al- 
ready authorized by law," we must repeal the law or raise 
the money. To repeal the laws, will be to abandon, in the 
most deliberate manner, the contest ; and money to a limited 
amount only can be raised by loans. A majority, therefore, 
will be found at last to unite in a system of taxation, di- 
rect and indirect. The subjects of the former will be, prob- 
ably, spirits, carriages, refined sugars, licenses to retailers, 
stamps on Bank iKt])er. 

Is it surprising, then, that in the midst of this perplexity 
we should require your countenance and encouragement I 
For myself, I denounce all further temporizing or inde- 
cision; and, our Foreign relations continuing the same, 
nothing but a declarration of war or an open abandonment 
of the contest will satisfy me. Nothing short of this can 
satisfy the just expectations of the Southern people, who 
have been bearing the brunt of the restrictive system from 
the beginning. 

* Roferriug to " Au Act to raise an additional Military force," approved 11th January, 1812, 
and " An Act authorizing the President of the United States to accept and organize certain 
Volunteer and Military corps." — En. 



108 LIFE OF GEORGE JI TROUP. [Chap. VI. 

We have much to hope from the diplomatic skill of Mr. 
Barlow : but should he fail in relieving our cotton from 
the prohibitory duty, there will be little scruple among 
Southern men in " recurring to measures not literaUy war- 
ranted by the hargain.'*' 

The Officers of the 25,000 have been ajiportioned among 
the respective States, and to our share has fallen the ap- 
pointment of one Lieutenant-Colonel, one Major, seven 
Captains, and a proportionate number of subalterns. The 
first has been given to General Jack, the second to Moss- 
man Houstoun. 

Some doubts are entertained of the practicability of 
raising men on enlistment for five years. This may give 
rise to a bill for raising a certain number on short enlist- 
ment. 

On the subject of the ensuing Congressional election: 
my interest, you know, imperiously demands my attention 
at home. If we have war, it will be a duty to continue ; 
if we have not, I will eagerly seize the opportunity to re- 
tire. In any event, I do not wish to occasion the least em- 
barrassment or trouble to our friends. 
With best wishes for you and yours, 

I am, dear Governor, very sincerely, 

Geo. M. Tkol-p. 



On the 29th November, 1811, the committee on Foreign 
Relations made a report to the House, in which they briefly 
but forcibly reviewed the causes and state of our difl'er- 
ences with Great Britain, and which they concluded by 
recommending, 

" 1st. That the Military Establishment, as authorized by 
the existing laws, ought to be immediately completed by 
filling up the ranks, and prolonging the enlistment of the 
troops ; and that, to encourage enlistment, a bounty in lands 
ought to be given in addition to the pay and bounty now 
allowed by law. 

" 2d. That an additional force of ten thousand regular 
troops ought to be immediately raised to serve for three 
years ; and that a bounty in land ought to be given to en- 
courage enlistments. 

" 3d. That it is expedient to authorize the President, under 
proper regulations, to accept the service of any number of 



Chap, YI.] REMARKS ON ENLISTMENT. 109 

volunteers, not exceeding fifty thousand; to be organized, 
trained, and held in readiness to act on such service as the 
exigencies of the Government may require. 

" 4th. That the President be authorized to order out, from 
time to time, detachments of the militia, as in his opinion 
the public service may require. 

" 5th. That all the vessels not now in service, belonging to 
the Navy, and worthy of repair, be immediately fitted up 
and put in commission. 

" 6th. That it is expedient to permit our merchant vessels, 
owned exclusively- by resident citizens, and commanded 
and navigated solely by citizens, to arm, under proper reg- 
ulations, to be prescribed by law, in self-defence, against 
all unlawful proceedings towards them on the high seas." 

The report led to an animated debate, (December 12th,) 
during which, the question being on agreeing to the second 
resolution, 

Mr. Troup rose to make an effort to put an end to the 
debate ; a debate in which the great mass of the House 
were enlisted on one side, against the solitary gentleman 
from Yirginia (Mr. Randolph) on the other. I trust, sir, 
the period has arrived when the House will feel itself 
bound, by the imperious calls of the country, to act, and to 
act promptly. I am ready to go heart and hand with the 
advocates of the resolution ; all I ask is, that they will lead 
with prudence and discretion ; deliberate when deliberation 
is useful, act when action is necessary. But, if the spirit of 
debate, as in former times, has seized upon us ; if idle ver- 
biage and empty vociferation are to take the place of 
manly and energetic conduct, I enter, at this early stage of 
the proceeding, my solemn protest. I cannot, I will not, 
share the responsii3ility of this ruinous course. Indeed, sir, 
so conscious do I feel of the evil — nay, of the danger to the 
country, from the course which has been adopted, I shall 
be constrained to call for the previous question, unless my 
friends shall interpose the more pleasant corrective, their 
own good sense, to stop it. I know, sir, they have been 
impelled by the most honorable sentiments, the most gen- 
erous passions, patriotism, honor, zeal for their country, 
rage against her oppressors. They are good reasoners, they 
are eloquent — but of what avail is argument, of what avail 
is eloquence, to convince, to persuade, whom ? Ourselves, 



11^0 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chav. VI. 

the people ? Sir, if the people are to be reasoned into a 
war now, it is too soon, much too soon, to begin it. If their 
Eepresentatives here are to be led to it by the flowers of 
rhetoric, it is too soon, much too soon, to begin it. 

When the honorable Chairman of the Committee of 
Foreign Kelations (Mr. Porter,) reported the resolutions, I 
had hoped he would have made a motion to go into con- 
clave, or, if that had not been deemed advisable, that at 
least the resolutions, when taken up with open doors, would 
have been treated as a system of defensive measures called 
for by the exigency of the times, and affording no just 
ground of complaint to any Power which might please to 
consider itself the object of them. Such a course would 
have been not less consistent with the report of the com- 
mittee itself, than with the letter and spirit of the Presi- 
dent's Message. The President himself would have been 
fortified by it. When the British Minister called, as he 
undoubtedl}" will, upon the President, to demand the causes 
of these warlike preparations, he might have been answer- 
ed : Sir, they are no other than what they purport on the 
face of them to be, a system of defence on the part of the 
American Government, called for by the state of the world ; 
or, if he pleased, he might have said, called for by the 
attitude which his Britannic Majesty had assumed, the 
propriety of which no nation had a right to question. 
But, instead of this, what had been done ? Why, at the 
ver}^ outset, we have been told the measures were intend- 
ed as measures of offensive hostility : that the army was 
to be raised to attack Canada ; nothing short of it ; all 
the advocates of the resolution declared it. Now, sir, 
could a more public or formal declaration of war have 
been made? Contrary to the practice of all nations, 
we declare first and make preparation afterward. More 
magnanimous than wise, we tell the enemy when we 
will strike, where we will strike, and how we will 
strike ! Do we mean a mere bravado ? Impossible. ISTo 
man who knows the advocates of the resolutions would sus- 
pect it ; bu.t we hope the enemy will recede ; he may ; but 
if he should not, let gentlemen look to the consequences ; 
let them look well to the character of that enemy : is he 
feeble, spiritless, destitute of resources, without courage, 
without honor ? Ko, sir ; witli two hundred and fifty 
thousand regulars and all the munitions of war in store, his 
fleets and transports manned, equipped and provisioned ; 
their sails bent to every Avind, they ask but one hundred 
and twenty days to reinforce Quebec, to fortify Montreal, 



Chap. VI.] REMARKS ON ENLISTMENT. HI 

to gain the passes into Canada, to march the supernumera- 
ries to Boston. Here we sit in idle debate. Sir, I do 
contend, most seriously, that ten thousand regulars can 
march to Boston in defiance of the militia of Massachusetts, 
well armed and organized as I know them to he. Now, 
sir, suppose this should happen, and more wonderful things 
have happened, what will be said ? What will my friend 
from Virginia say to the first victims of the war? Why, 
he will say, " This is no war of mine ; I exerted all my 
strength to turn these people from their mad and desperate 
career!" The gentleman from Virginia exonerates him- 
self from all responsibility by the very act of opposition ; 
but, what can be said of us, the advocates of the resolution, 
to whom all responsibility attaches? That "we had not 
finished our war speeches ! " — that " we could not begin 
to raise men until we had finished them ! " Sir, believe 
me, the people of this country want no such speeches; they 
will go for war, because they believe war is necessary to 
the preservation of their honor and substantial interest; 
they want men and arms to defend them — not words. If 
gentlemen persevere in the debate, I will call the previous 
question. The safety of the state, after what has been said 
and done, demand it, and all considerations must yield to 
that. 

The resolutions were all afterwards carried, (the first 
having been previously adopted,) and a bill or bills ordered 
to be brought in, pursuant to the sixth resolution. On the 
2d of January, 1812, a bill from the Senate, " to raise an 
additional military force," being before the House, and 
an amendment having been oftered, 

Mr. Troup observed that, if it were found, some time 
hence, that 25,000 men were unnecessary, Congress could 
at once say that only a certain part should be raised. It 
had, in his opinion, l3een correctly said that if we do not 
want 25,000 men, we do not want one man* Can the gen- 
tleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Smilie, the mover of the 
amendment,) doubt that 5,000 men will be wanted for the 
defence of New Orleans ? And is it not stated by the Sec- 
retary of War, that 12,000 men will be wanted for the 
fortifications on our seaboard, exclusive of the aid to be 
derived from the militia, which takes 17,000 out of the 
25,000 men { And is there a man, who has a knowledge 
of military affairs, who would be willing to sit down before 



112 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap, VI. 

the Gibraltar of America, Quebec, with less than 20,000 
men ? In his raincl, however, the capture of Halifax would 
be more important than Quebec, as from thence may be 
expected the chief attacks upon our commerce ; but Hali- 
fax could not be taken until Quebec was first secured. He 
could see no reason for adopting the amendment. 

On the 9th of the same month, a question being before 
the House on receding from some amendments (in regard 
to appointment of officers,) to which the Senate would not 
agree, 

Mr. Troup was in favor of receding, because, in doing so, 
he believed the raising of the troops would be expedited ; 
for, if two hundred officers could raise ten thousand men in 
a given time, four hundred officers could raise twenty- 
thousand in the same time. He could not help replying to 
a remark of the gentleman from Pennsylvania, (Mr, Smilie) 
that gentlemen were all for economy. Mr. T. was not for 
a war of economy, but a war of vigor. All wars are ne- 
cessarily expensive. The more feeble and protracted they 
are, the greater will be the expense ; and the expense is 
less, in proportion, as they are short and vigorous. If we 
are not to have an energetic war, let us have no war. He 
believed the resources of the country are adequate to any 
war. Compare the situation of the country with what it 
was in 1775. Our population now consists of seven mil- 
lions of active, enterprising individuals, carrying on a com- 
merce second only to one nation in the world ; then, our 
population was only three millions, with a feeble colonial 
commerce, and the people miserably poor in everything 
but a spirit of liberty. What did they do i If gentlemen 
will recur to the Journals of that day, they will discover 
that, when Congress had a formidable army ready to march, 
they had not a dollar of revenue, and the people were too 
indigent to raise money. Congress had to issue bills of 
credit to the amount of two millions of dollars. If it be 
thought we cannot raise the necessary supplies, we had 
better do at once, what, perhaps, we shall find it necessary 
to do, if we refuse to recede from these amendments — 
sicbmit. 

[1812.] The bill to authorize the President to accept and 
organize certain volunteer corps, being before the House on 
the 11th of January, a question arose as to the power of the 
President to employ this force out of the limits of the 
United States. Col. Troup spoke as follows : 



Chap. VI.] REMARKS ON THE MILITIA. 113 

Mi\ Troup said, it was evidently an object with the Con- 
vention who formed the Constitution, to repress, as much 
as possible, in the new government, the power of making 
conquests. History had informed them that conquests had 
always been injurious to every country which had engaged 
in making them ; they, therefore, by their provisions, en- 
deavored to repress this spirit. They say, in so many 
words, " If you. will indulge in this spirit of conquest, 
which has been the bane of every nation which has indulged 
in it, you shall carry it on by an army, and an army 
only." And why ? Because an army could only be raised 
by putting the country to great expense, and this was the 
limitation which the Convention thought proper to put to 
the spirit of conquest. A largo army, maintained for this 
purpose, would be viewed with jealousy by the people of 
the United States ; and of this the members of the Conven- 
tion were well aware. There was, on the face of the Con- 
stitution, Mr. T. said, an obvious distinction made between 
the Army and the militia. Power is given to Congress to 
raise armies. For what purposes ? For all military pur- 
poses. Congress shall have power to call out the militia. 
For what purposes ? To suppress insurrections, execute the 
laws, and repel invasions. If it had been the design of 
the Convention to have given Congress the same power 
over the militia as over the Army, would they not have 
said so in express terms 'i But there was another good 
reason for vAthholding this power from Congress. The 
States relied upon the militia for their protection against 
any attempt at usurpation by the General Government. 
If gentlemen will turn to one of the amendments of the 
Constitution, they will find it declared, " that a well regu- 
lated militia is necessary to the security of a free State." 

But there is another wide distinction between the Army 
and militia, from the different characters of tho persons 
who compose the two bodies. What are the militia ? They 
are yeomanry ; citizens of the country, called from their 
homes and their families, in cases of emergency, for the 
defence of their country. Would it be reasonable to vest 
the power in Congress to carry these men from their homes 
and their families, for foreign invasion or foreign conquest ? 
It could not have been the intention of the Convention that 
these men might be shipped off against Jamaica or Yera 
Cruz — for if, by any construction of the Constitution, the 
militia can be sent one foot beyond the limits of the 
United States, they might be sent to Chili or Paraguay. 

15 



114 LIFE OP GEOEGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VI. 

If, then, the militia cannot be sent out of the country, 
and these volunteers are militia, neither can they be so 
disposed of. But are they militia 'i He did not know how 
they could be distinguished from them. They now form a 
part of the militia, under the officers of ithe respective 
States, and they are so to remain. They are, therefore, 
volunteer militia, and nothing else. 

But gentlemen say, these volunteers can be marched out 
of the country by their own consent. Will consent make 
any difference ? Will it make an act of government consti- 
tutional, which, without it, would be unconstitutional ? 
The government of the United States and these volunteers 
are not the only parties concerned. The people of the 
United States were the makers of the Constitution, and not 
these individuals and the General Government ; and the 
respective States cannot surrender their militia, which they 
have a right to hold for their own security. 

But the gentleman from the State of Maryland, (Mr. 
Wright,) says, that the militia may be called out by the 
General Government to execute the laws ; that the Presi- 
dent may be authorized to take possession of Canada by 
law,, and that the militia maybe called upon to execute 
this law. This, he considered as an unfounded construction 
of the Constitutional provision. It was surely never meant 
that the militia should be called upon to execute the laws 
without the Union, but within it. The law alluded to by 
the gentleman v\^ould be a declaration of war, and not a 
law of the Union, for the execution of which the President 
has power given to him to call out the militia. 

If the militia can be called out to repel invasion, they 
can be called out to the seaboard or garrisons, for the pur- 
pose of repelling invasion, whenever well-founded appre- 
hensions are entertained of such an event ; and if they go 
beyond the territory, it would be no less an act of repelling 
invasion than was the first onset. 

If, said Mr. T., these volunteers are to be organized as 
regular troops, not for five years, like the other regulars, 
but for one year, then Avhatever men enter the service of 
the country, will go into this corps ; and the army provided 
by law to be raised, would not be enlisted. 

Mr. T. was willing to authorize the President to accept 
of the service of fifty thousand volunteers for the defence 
of the country, under the bill as it now stands, which would 
leave the government at liberty to send the regular troops 
abroad, if they found it necessary to do so. 



Chap. VI.] DECLARATION OF WAR. 115 

Imperfectly reported as these speeches probably were, 
they serve to show the consistency, foresight and patriotism 
of their author. From the first, he had looked to the con- 
tingency of war as not only probable, bnt highly so ; he had 
been opposed to a temporizing policy ; he had denounced 
the non-intercourse system as futile, and calculated to bring 
the country into contempt with her enemies ; and now 
that war was inevitable, he was in favor of an immediate 
preparation for and vigorous prosecution of it. When the 
shock came, and the roar of the battle drowned the clamor 
of foes and hushed the feeble voices of the timid advocates 
of the nation's honor, his voice and his example served, in 
the din of the conflict, to give confidence to the brave, and 
to animate the drooping courage of his countrymen. 

[1812.] In addition to other speeches which he made 
during this session, Col. Troup spoke at length, on 30th 
April, in favor of a bill to appoint Assistant Secretaries 
of War. In concluding his speech, he said : '' no man 
in the country is equal to one half the duties which, de- 
volve on the present Secretary." The bill passed the 
House, but was afterwards indefinitely postponed in the 
Senate. 

President 'Madison sent in to Congress, his " War Mes- 
sage," on the 1st day of June. After reciting the wrongs 
under which the United States had suftered, the message 
proceeded: "Whether the United States shall continue 
passive under these progressive usurpations and these ac- 
cumulating wrongs, or, opposing force to force in defence 
of their national rights, shall commit a just cause into the 
hands of the Almighty disposer of events, avoiding all 
connections which might entangle it in the contests or views 
of other powers, and preserving a constant readiness to 
concur in an honorable re-establishment of peace and 
friendship, is a solemn question which the Constitution 
wisely confides to the legislative department of the Govern- 
ment," &c., &c. 

On the 4th day of June, the House, by a vote of 79 to 
49, passed a bill declaring war between Great Britain and 



116 rJFE or GEORGE M. TROUP. [Ciup. VI. 

the United States. It passed the Senate, with amendments, on 
the 17th; the amendments were concrn'redin by the House 
on the 18th, and on the same day the bill became a law by 
the signature of the President to it. 

On the Oth of July, the first session of the Twelfth Con- 
gress terminated by the adjournment of both Houses. 

We hero present to the reader a letter written by Col. 
Troup to Gov. Mitchell, dated 

Washington, Oth Sept., 1812. 

Dear Sir : I arrived here yesterday. The President is 
on a visit of a week to his country seat. 

Col. Monroe, with whom I conversed, yesterday, on our 
Georgia aflairs, assures me you shall be supported. The 
negotiation for Florida, at wdiich I hinted when I saw 
you, is not relinquished, and hope is still indulged from it. 
Take no notice of the order of the Secretary to Col. Smith. 
Though acknowledged to be irregular, Col. Monroe insists 
it was inadvertent,"" 

Mathews and have not yet arrived. 

Hull, with a superior force well armed and provisioned, sur- 
rendered in a most dastardly manner,at a time when he had 
the power to make himself master of lTp23er Canada. He 
might have taken Maiden at any day between his departure 
from and return to Detroit. The British would have sur- 
rendered after a show of resistance. Harrison and Win- 
chester will speedily recover the lost ground. 

With high consideration and sincere friendship, 

G. M. Tkouf. 

His Excellency Gov. Mitchell, 
Milledgeville, Georgia. 

[1812.] The second session of the Twelfth Congress be- 
gan on the 20th day of November. On the 6th of that 
month, Col. Troup was appointed second on the House 

* This portion of the above letter refers, probably, to the part which Gov. Mitchell took, at 
the instance of the President of the United States, in an effort to procure from the authorities 
of East Florida— then in a state of supposed revolution, growing out of the '•' patriot" dilH- 
culties — the annexation of that province to the United States. Gov. Mathews, who was first 
appointed for that purpose, had been superseded, on the ground of an alleged excess of the 
powers confided to him, and Gov. Mitchell was put in his place, and at once proceeded to St. 
Mary's for the purpose of negotiation. In his message of 1812, Gov. Mitchell said : " On 
my ai-rival at that place, I found the progress of the revolution stopped before St. Augustine, 
the patriots being unable alone to attack that formidable post, and the American troops not 
permitted to act on the offensive. In a short time I sent to Augustine, in compliance with 
the instructions I had received, and a correspondence between the person then acting as gov- 
ernor, and myself, commenced, which, however, soon terminated, in consequence of the Span- 



Chap. VI.] REMARKS ON ENLISTING MINORS. II7 

committee to wliicli so miicli of tlie President's message as 
related to the militia, volunteers and tlie Army of the 
United States, &c., was referred. 

On the 19th, Mr. Williams, of South Carolina, chairman 
of the committee, reported " a bill concerning the pay of 
the non-commissioned officers, musicians, privates and oth- 
ers of the Army of the United States, and for other pur- 
poses." The third section of the hill was as follows: 
" That, during the said war, every person above the age of 
eighteen years, who shall be enlisted by an officer, shall be 
held in the Army of the United States during the period of 
such enlistment ; anything in any act to the contrary not 
withstanding." On the 20th, the House being in com- 
mittee of the whole, a motion was made to strike out the 
third section — the principal grounds of objection to it be- 
ing that the enlistment of minors tended to violate the pub- 
lic morals — that it interfered with public economy — and 
violated the spirit of the Constitution. In reply to these 
arguments, 

Mr. Troup said, the objections to this provision were lame 
in their nature ; he only wished they were half as sound 
as they were novel. It was the result of the experience 
of men older than themselves in military concerns, that 
this very description of population, between eighteen and 
twenty-one, constituted the strength and vigor of every 
war. What was the fact as respected France? So just 
was this principle in the contemplation of France, that her 
whole army is made up of these young men ; and yet an 
attempt is made to deter us from using them, by a flimsy 
pretext, that to employ them would be violating the obliga- 
tions of a contract and the principles of morality. If our 
feelings and sympathies be suffered to influence us in favor 
of the individual who voluntarily enlists, the reasons are 
much stronger in favor of discharging one half of those 
already in your ranks, than the description just spoken of. 

iard preferring the application of force to remove tbe American troops, which he actually 
tried on the 16th May, to the more tedious operation of having it done by negotiation in a 
peaceful manner. The experiment, however, did not succeed, and the troops kept their 
ground." 

Col. Smith was the commander of the American forces, and these forces were not with- 
drawn for some time after. It would appear, from Col. Troup's letter, that Gov. Mathewg 
was alive at its date, although it is stated in Gov. Gilmer's work, " Georgians," that he died at 
Augusta, March, 1812, "whilst on his way to Washington city to thrash the President.— Ed. 



118 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VI. 

There is scarcely any man over the age of twenty-one years, 
between whom and other individuals there is not some 
strong obligatory moral tie, which we ought not to sever 
if we could conveniently avoid it. Look at the case of a 
husband deserting his wife and children, or of a man, 
above twenty-one, deserting his aged parent, dependent on 
him for subsistence. Are not these cases equally strong ? 
The doctrine of the gentleman, whether on the score of 
morality or expediency, will apply to cases above as well 
as below the age of twenty-one. As respects the young 
men of our country, there is no fact better established than 
that, at the age of eighteen, they are, as respects physical 
power, as well qualified for the fatigues of the camp, as in 
other countries at twenty-one. Their services are more 
valuable than those of any other class, and he was not 
willing to dispense with them when we had the greatest 
occasion for them. 

On the 21st, he spoke as follows : 

Mr, Teotjp. — If a stranger in the gallery had listened to 
the member from Massachusetts, (Mr. Quincy,) he would 
have supposed that the provision of the bill against 
which the gentleman's anathemas were most vehemently 
leveled, authorized the recruiting sergeant to enter the 
house of the citizen, drag from it the young man, and trans- 
port him, loaded with chains, (as is said to be the practice 
of one nation of Europe,) to the armies. Who would 
have supposed that the provision merely authorized 
the recruiting sergeant to accept the voluntary service of 
the young man, between eighteen and twenty-one ? The 
service due to the country, prior in point of time, para- 
mount in obligation, must yield, says the gentleman, to the 
service due to the master, the parent, ro the guardian. If, 
sir, in the days of Rome's greatness, if in the proud days 
of Grecian glory, the man could have been found base 
and hardy enough to withhold the young men from the 
public service, to turn them from the path of honor, or to re- 
strain them from the field of fame, he would have been 
hurled from the Tarpeian Rock or consigned to the Cave 
of Trophonius. The young man is preferred here, not be- 
cause he is preferred in France, but because his physical 
constitution and his moral temperament peculiarly 
qualify him for the arduous duties of the field and camp ; 
bodily vigor and activity, ardor, enterprise, impetuosity ; 
without family, and therefore without the cares which 
family involve : 'No wife, no helpless children. "Without 



Chap. VI.] ENLISTMENT OF MINORS. 119 

care, but for his country ; witliout fear, but for her dishon- 
or ; he is most eminently qualified for the duties of the 
camp and the field ; all experience has proved it. 

But the gentleman is not content with opposing himself 
to the patriotism of the young men ; he is not less opposed 
to the increase of pay. Mr. T. thought, from the conduct of 
the House the other day, that the provision had been uni- 
versally approved. He was the more surprised at the op- 
position of the gentleman, because it was this provision of 
the bill which meant to eradicate that vice and immorality 
of the Army, which the gentleman affected so much to de- 
plore. The increase of pay had two objects, the filling the 
ranks, and the general respectability of the Army. The 
recruiting service had suddenly stopped ; it stopped 
only because all the men which were to be had for sixteen 
dollars bounty, and five dollars and one hundred and sixty 
acres of land, were already picked up ; to get more, noth- 
ing could be done but to increase the pay ; the quantum of 
increase was the only question. The difficulty of enlisting 
men was not peculiar to us ; it was felt by every nation. 
Military wages bore no equitable proportion to the ordinary 
wages of the country. In the stronger and more despotic 
governments of Europe^ force was resorted to ; in the more 
mild and moderate, stratagem and fraud and trick. Who 
had not heard of the tricks of recruiting sergeants ? Un- 
der our own government, enlistments, to be lawful, must be 
fair and free and voluntary ; hence, the only remedy left us 
was increase of pay. But the filling of the ranks was by 
no means the most important object. The increase of the 
general respectability of the Army was of infinitely more 
importance. The regular service had been brought into 
universal disrepute in the country. The cause is obvious ; 
it was the five dollars per month, and nothing else. There 
was nothing ignominious or disgraceful in the nature of the 
employment ; on the contrary ,"it is honorable, it inspires 
honorable sentiments. Ask the farmer why he does not 
encourage his son to enlist in the service of his country ? 
He answers at once, that he can make ten dollars a month 
on the farm ; that if he has honesty and industry, anybody 
will hire him for t^n dollars. Can there be any doubt that, 
by increasing the pay, you will increase the numbers of 
the Army ? Not only so ; in the exact proportion as you in- 
crease the pay, will you increase the respectability. It is 
self-evident. Suppose, instead of sixty dollars, or ninety 
dollars a year, you would agree to give them five thousand 
dollars, there is no doubt your ranks would soon be filled. 



120 LIFE OP GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VI. 

You would liave tlie silk-stocking gentry, (I do not know that 
the Army would be much better for that,) you would chance 
to have a few members of Congress, perhaps a Secretary 
of State, perhaps an ex-President ; you would at least enlist 
honesty and industry. I say, sir, the increase of the re- 
spectability of the Army at this moment is of infinite im- 
jjortance. With every disposition to rely on the militia for 
defence and offence, we are not permitted to do so ; the 
militia are withheld by some of the States. The gentle- 
man and his friends have withheld the militia of Massa- 
chusetts; he would now withhold the regulars. Give 
character and respectability to the Army, and when, in a 
spirit of jealousy or disaifection, or treason, the militia 
should be withheld, you are still independent ; you are still 
a government for all the objects of government. If Mas- 
sachusetts and Connecticut — but I forbear. 

On the oOth of December, the House being in commit- 
tee of the whole on the bill to raise an additional military 
force, and a proposition being made to postpone the fur- 
ther consideration of it, 

Mr. Troup said, he would have no objection to grant the 
postponement asked by the gentlemen, (Messrs. Gold and 
Quincy,) if their object was consistent with that of the 
committee. The object of the committee was to combine 
a union of council and energy of action in favor of the 
war. The next campaign must be opened with vigor, and 
prosecuted to success. With this view, the committee had 
presented a system ; gentlemen might, if they pleased, call 
it a system of the Executive. They submitted it to the 
House, not as the very best which it was possible for hu- 
man ability to devise, but the best which, under all circum- 
stances, they were able to present : they asked gentlemen 
on the opposite side, to take it, not word for word, as it was 
submitted, but to take it for as much as it was worth ; to 
amend it if defective; to substitute one in lieu of it if 
radically wrong. Their argument would be listened to 
witli pleasure — their amendment or substitute respectfully 
considered. But the motion to postpone was inadmissible, 
because the motive was incorrect ; procrastination in the 
present state of the country was death. Gentlemen would 
neither amend the system with a view to make it better, 
nor would they substitute one in lieu of it. They were 
opposed to the war ; they disavowed any responsibility for 
its origin, progress or consequences — it was a war of wicked- 



Chap. VI.] SPEECH ON THE ARMY BILL. 121 

ness against innocence. Gentlemen had expressly said so ; 
they wonkl not give you a dollar or a man to carry it on. 
Yet are we asked to postpone the bill — to hear the argu- 
ment — to risk the loss of another campaign. If there be 
anything which can endanger the system, it is delay. A 
week or a day is of great importance. It is a Parliamen- 
tary rule, that he who is radically opposed to a bill shall 
not amend it. It is a good rule that he who is opposed to 
the war shall not plan the campaign. A gentleman on the 
other side of the House. (Mr. Potter,) had said, in a spirit of 
frankness and candor which did him honor, that, having 
opposed the war, he was opposed to the ways and means 
of conducting it, and therefore to any object of expenditure 
connected with it — to a navy, an army and everything 
else. He was happy to find, however, that there were 
some gentlemen on the same side of the House who would 
not act with him ; who would not sacrifice the country to 
the passions of party. Mr. T. only asked that the majority, 
to whom the responsibility attached, should be permitted 
to proceed in furnishing the Executive with the means of 
conducting the war. 

But the most considerable, and perhaps the ablest speech 
which Col. Troup delivered during and in defence of the 
war, was on the 6th of January, 1813, pending the discus- 
sion of the bill just noticed, to raise an additional military 
force of 20,000 men for one year. 

He spoke as follows : 

Mr. Troup said, that observations had fallen from certain 
gentlemen, which merited reply and deserved correction. 
The two gentlemen who had just sat down, (Messrs. Grundy 
and Archer,) had noticed some of those observations in a 
handsome manner,' and had given the appropriate answer. 
There yet remained some points which it would be proper 
to notice ; it was the comparative decorum, Vv- ith which they 
were made that entitled them to respect. The gentlem-an 
from Connecticut, (Mr. Pitkin,) had declared that this gov- 
ernment had insisted in past time, and did still continue to 
insist, that the American flag should cover all descriptions 
of persons sailing under it, and that this perseverance in 
an erroneous principle had been the cause of the war, and 
of all the calamities the nation had suflPered. Mr. T. said, 
he was the more surprised to hear a round, unqualified 
declaration of this kind from the gentleman, because he 
had given repeated proofs to the House of tlie attention 
16 



122 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VI. 

wliicli lie bestowed on the public documents, and the assi- 
duity with which he had studied them ; there were two of 
them, especially, which the gentleman must have read, 
and, reading, could not fail to have remembered ; one of 
no very remote date, the other very recent, and very inter- 
esting; it would be doing injustice to the gentleman to be- 
lieve they were not strongly imprinted on his memory, yet 
did both those documents more plainly and directly con- 
tradict the allegation of the gentleman. Long before the 
period, however, to which I refer, Mr. King, our Minister 
at London, had written to the Secretary of State, " that, on 
this subject, (viz., impressment,) we had again and again 
offered to concur in a convention, which we thought prac- 
ticable to be formed, and which would settle these questions 
in a manner that would be safe for England and satisfactory 
to us." (Letter 15th March, 1799.) The first document 
after this is a letter of instruction from the Secretary of 
State to Mr. Monroe, Minister at the Court of St. James, 
dated May 29th, 1807, soon after the failure of the treaty 
concluded by himself and Mr. Pinkney, and is to the fol- 
lowing purport : 

" It is agreed that after the term of months, 

computed from the exchange of ratifications, and during 
a war in which either of the contracting parties may be 
engaged, neither of them will permit any seaman, not be- 
ing its own citizen or subject, and being a citizen or sub- 
ject of the other party, who shall not have been for two 
years at least, prior to that date, constantly and voluntarily 
in the service or within tlie jurisdiction of the parties re- 
spectively, to enter or be employed on board any of its 
vessels navigating the high seas ; and proper regulations, 
enforced by adequate penalties, shall be mutually estab- 
lished for distinguishing the seamen of the parties, respec- 
tively, and for giving fall eftect to this stipulation." 

Here, then, is documentary evidence that, so far back as 
the year 1807, the American government had tendered to 
the British cabinet a proposition, the eflect of which was 
to exempt from the protection of the American flag, or, 
what is the same thing, to exclude from the American ser- 
vice, every description of persons, saving American native- 
born and naturalized citizens. Does the gentleman insist 
that the naturalized citizen should not be protected ? If 
he does not, will he authorize the British to search and im- 
press, though the American government should prohibit, 
by all the penalties of law, foreigners of any description 
from entering into the service of her merchant vessels ? Does 



Ghap.VL] remarks on IMPRESSMENT. 123 

lie mean that we shall be exposed to the vexatious practice 
of search and impressment, notwithstanding the govern- 
ment shall do everything in its power to prevent British 
subjects from entering into its service ? But, Mr. Speak- 
er, if the proposition of Mr. Monroe did not go far enough 
for the gentleman, the proposition of Mr. Eussell unques- 
tionably did. Here it is: 

" I finally offered, in order to answer at once all the ob- 
servations and inquiries of Lord Castlereagh, that the pro- 
posed understanding should be expressed in the most gen- 
eral terms ; that the laws to take effect on the discontinu- 
ance of the practice of impressment, should prohibit the 
employment of the native subjects or citizens of the one 
State, excepting such only as had already been naturalized, 
on board the private or public ships of the other ; thus 
removing any objection that might have been raised with 
regard to the future effect of naturalization, or the formal 
renunciation of any pretended right." 

The effect of this proposition of Mr. Eussell, sir, is not 
only the exclusion of British subjects from American em- 
ploy, but the exclusion of British subjects who may in 
future be naturalized in the United States. Hence, our 
flag would have covered none but native Americans, and 
such British subjects as had been before naturalized. Hav- 
ing employed the power of the country ; having resorted 
to all the pains and penalties which the law can provide to 
prohibit this description of persons from serving on board 
American vessels ; will the gentleman, notwithstanding, in- 
sist that British commanders shall enter our vessels to make 
search for seamen ? If, notwithstanding the prohibition, it 
were permited to British officers to make search for sea- 
men, the prohibition had better not be made ; the practice 
might as well go on in all the latitude of tyranny and op- 
pression which has distinguished it. 

The gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Pearson) has 
been pleased, in the course of his observations on this sub- 
ject, to offer to the House a project for a peace. He would 
have the Legislature to pass laws prohibiting the employ of 
British seamen in our service, leaving the President to 
make a tender of those laws, through fit and proper charac- 
ters, to the British government, as the basis of an adjust- 
ment. The gentleman is to accomplish two objects l)y his 
project — a union of parties, and a peace with the enemy ; 
both objects, sir, are not less interesting to me than to the 
gentleman ; but, I very much doubt, Mr. Speaker, wheth- 
er either of them be attainable. The gentleman not only 



124 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VI. 

requires a specific form to be given to the proposition it- 
self, but it is an essential condition on which he is to enter 
into the union, that the proposition he tendered to tlie 
British government by such characters as he will approve ; 
by men^as he says, without office and v/ithout expectation 
of office. JS"ovvr, sir, although it may not be very difficult 
to find men who do not liold office, it would seem to me to 
be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to find men with- 
out expectation of office ; and yet the gentleman would be 
under no obligation to unite with us, unless his project were 
tendered to the British government by such men. Mr. 
Pinkney had passed for a Federalist, both in this country 
and England ; he had tendered a very important proposi- 
tion to the British government ; but, as the gentlemen on 
the other side had always doubted the sincerity of the gov- 
ernment in making that overture, it is to be presumed that 
whatever confidence they might have had in Mr. Pinkney 
as a politician, they had ceased to respect him as a fit per- 
son to make propositions to the British government. Sir, I 
fear it is as difficult to unite parties as to conciliate the Brit- 
ish government. Both the gentlemen from Connecticut 
and North Carolina have mistaken the character of that 
government ; she is not to be conciliated. If they sincerely 
want peace, they must employ the resources and energies 
of the country to coerce it. This is susceptible of proof; 
repeated overtures have been made in the most amicable 
spirit, and have beenuniformly rejected, and under circum- 
stances which left no doubt of the lurking hostility which 
dictated the rejection. 

The proposition of Mr. Monroe, of 1807, had failed ; the 
proposition of Mr. Pinkney, of 1810 and 1811, had failed; 
the recent proposition of Mr. Russell had failed. Of the 
first, I have already spoken. Give me leave to say some- 
thing of the second. The failure of the second proposition, 
viz.: to continue the non-intercourse against France, repeal- 
ing it as to England, provided England would rescind her 
Orders in Council, is one of the most extraordinary and 
unaccountable occurrences in political history. Be it re- 
membered, sir, that this proposition was substantially a 
proposition to go to war on the side of England against 
France, provided England would rescind her orders — 
France continuing her decrees. I say this was the propo- 
sition, substantially, because this was the inevitable effect 
of it, to place the United States in the same relation to 
England as they are now placed in relation to France^ — not 
with a view, Mr. Speaker, to an alliance with either ; far 



Chap. VI.] FURTHER REMARKS OF COL. TROUP. 125 

from it; but to tlie ultimate yinclicatioii of tiieir own just 
rights against tlie aggressions of either of them — warring 
for themselves, and for themselves making peace. But, 
most strange to saj, Mr. Speaker, this voluntary tender of 
our friendship was disdainfully rejected ; at a period, too, 
when England, pressed by a formidable war, was standing 
as it were on her last legs — all Europe united against her 
— and when, according "to her own declaration, her very 
existence was at stake ; wdien, too, the single condition of 
this friendly proposition was, that England should recall a 
measure, which, but a short time after, she was forced to 
abandon to the clamors and distresses of her own people. 
Iso, said England, we want not your friendship ; it is of no 
value to us ; you have not courage and fortitude to defend, 
manfully, your own just rights, and how can I expect that 
you will render important service to me? It is altogether 
impossible, sir, to account for the conduct of England, 
without supposing her to have entertained such sentiments. 
And will the gentleman from North Carolina flatter him- 
self with the belief, that, after the failure of such a propo- 
sition, England is to be conciliated by his project — a pro- 
ject substantially the same as that of Mr. Monroe, of 1807, 
and identically the proposition of Mr. Russell in 1812 ? 
But the gentleman derives hope from the ground on which 
Mr. Russell's proposal was rejected. Mr. Russell, says the 
gentleman, was not regularly commissioned, nor was he 
formally instructed to make the proposition in the latitude 
in which he tendered it. But, sir, was not the letter of the 
Secretary of State a sufficient commission for him? And, 
suppose Mr. Russell, consulting the spirit rather than the 
letter of his instructions, had given to the proposition a 
somewhat more liberal character, it was not on this ground 
the proposition was rejected ; it was rejected, as Lord 
Castlereagh expressly said, because England would never 
consent to entertain any proposal which went to abridge 
her right of impressment ; that any arrangement for the 
limitation of this right was impracticable, and had always 
been so ; that it was true, on this subject, their friends in 
Congress — meaning the Federalists — had believed in the 
practicability of an arrangement, but they were mistaken ; 
Mr. King was as far from accomplishing it as Mr. 
Monroe : that, in fact, it was in vain to negotiate about 
it ; popular feeling would not permit tliem to make any 
concession upon the subject. This is the language of Lord 
Castlereagh. But suppose it had not been : If the British 
cabinet were sincerely disposed to listen to the proposal, 



126 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VI. 

they would have said so, notwithstanding any objection 
which could have been taken to the authority or power of 
Mr. Eussell. Lord Castlereagh would have said, for in- 
stance, that the proposition was a fair one ; that, if offered 
by an agent with full powers, it would be entertained ; if 
inconvenient to make it the basis of negotiation at Lon- 
don, it might be made the basis of negotiation at "Wash- 
ington. But this, sir, never entered into the head of Lord 
Castlereagh. The answer to Mr. Russell was, that the 
thing was" wholly impracticable, and had always been so. 
But, the gentleman desires us to repeat the same proposi- 
tion, that we may receive the same answer. 

I trust, sir, by this time, I have been able to satisfy the 
gentleman that England is not to be conciliated. Will the 
gentleman and his friends unite with me in a project of co- 
ercion — a project in which I have no less confidence than 
the gentleman from North Carolina in his own ? Yes, sir, so 
much confidence that I would almost be tempted to make a 
bargain with the gentleman to take any of their projects, 
however fanciful, if, within a reasonable time, the enemy 
did not yield to united councils and an active war. My 
project is, emlargo — an immediate, entire and rigidly 
executed embargo, embracing as well the coasting as 
foreign trade, and, if you please, sir, a provision by law for 
naturalizing British seamen, voluntarily entering into the 
service of the United States, during the war — the converse 
of the proposition of the gentleman. An embargo may be 
resorted to at this moment with comparatively little sacri- 
fice ; the foreign trade is inconsiderable, the coasting trade 
is almost entirely interrupted. The eflect of an embargo 
would be ; 

1. To keep our own commerce safe at home, leaving the 
commerce of the enemy exposed to the assaults of our pri- 
vateers and public vessels ; 

2. To distress the enemy at home, in his colonies, and on 
the Peninsula ; 

3. To give ten-fold vigor to the war, by making a diver- 
sion of men and of capital in favor of our privateers, and 
of men in favor of our public vessels ; 

4. To facilitate the reduction of Canada, by creating par- 
tial scarcity, at least — perhaps absolute distress. 

ISTow is the moment, Mr. Speaker, for this embargo. The 
British papers announce that the price of bread has risen 
on the heel of the harvest, though the harvest has been de- 
scribed as abundant. The proclamations of the Prince 
Eegent prohibit the conversion of grain into starch, and the 



Chap, VI.] FURTHER REMARKS OF COL. TROUP. 127 

use of grain in the breweries. Can we have stronger evi- 
dence of appreliended scarcity? Sir, of the force and 
effect with which tliis measure may be wielded against the 
enemy, we do not want more decisive proof than that which 
the enemy himself has furnished — proof which is a source 
of triumph and exultation to every American. Two facts 
were unfolded. First, by the examination before the Bri- 
tish House of Commons, it had been shown that, if the 
British people were not at all times and under all cir- 
cumstances "absolutely dependent on us for a market for 
their manufactures, they were at this time and in the pres- 
ent state of the world absolutely dependent ; second, that 
if not always, and in every state of things, absolutely de- 
pendent on us for supplies of provisions, they were in the 
present state of Europe absolutely dependent. I beseech 
the gentlemen, therefore, to take the embargo as asure 
measure of attaining what they profess so much to desire — 
peace. But, sir, the other measure which I tender to the 
gentlemen, though not so powerful and efficient against the 
"enemy, is not less interesting : the protection of seamen of 
every description, during the war, who shall be found fight- 
ing under the American flag — to naturalize the seaman 
voluntarily enlisting on board the armed vessels of the 
United States, and, having naturalized, to protect him with 
the power of the country. Whatever, Mr. Speaker, have 
been our misfortunes or reverses on the land, we may enjoy 
the consolation that the gallantry and skill of our seamen 
will make the war, if not a short, yet certainly an honora- 
ble, one for the country ; the war was undertaken chiefly 
for them ; they will be chiefly instrumental in waging it, 
and I have no doubt they will make it a glorious one for 
themselves and for all of us ; but they ought to be protect- 
ed. Whatever be the description or character of the sea- 
man fighting under the American flag, that seaman ought 
to be protected. Not a hair of his head should be touched 
by the enemy with impunity. In considering, Mr. Speak- 
er, the right, propriety and justice, of adopting this regu- 
lation, we are naturally led to advert to the British doctrine 
and practice on this subject; and here I beg leave to re- 
mark that it is scarcely possible for the imagination to 
conceive anything more inconsistent and contradictory than 
the British doctriue and practice. She sets up a principle 
of public law — ^be it arbitrary or be it sound, no matter — 
she requires the observance of it from all other nations as 
a settled principle of public law. So long as it suits her 
to respect, she respects it; whenever it suits her to violate, 



128 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VL 

she violates it; her principle is, that allegiance is natural? 
perpetual and inalienable ; that it is born with the subject, 
and descends with him into the grave ; that once a British 
subject, always a British subject. She enforces this doctrine 
when she impresses from American vessels naturalized citi- 
zens; she enforces it when she threatens with death, as the 
Prince Regent has recently done in his proclamation, the 
British seaman of any description who may be found fighting 
under the American flag. She violates the doctrine, she 
tramples it under foot, when she declares, by statute, that 
the American seaman entering voluntarily into her service, 
and continuing two years, is ipso facto naturalized. She 
violates the doctrine, she tramples it under foot, when she 
declares, by statute, that the American seaman contracting 
marriage with a British subject, is ipso facto naturalized. 
Thus, while in practice she contemns her own doctrine, she 
holds out every lure and temptation to the American sea- 
man to desert the service of his country. It is not of much 
importance to us, Mr. Speaker, what doctrine the British 
government may set up ; all we ask is, that, whatever the 
doctrine be, she will herself respect it. While her Govern- 
ment is in the habitual practice of naturalizing Aaierican 
seamen, she insists that our Government shall not natural- 
ize her subjects. Assuredly, Mr. Speaker, it cannot be 
unlawful for us to do in relation to her what she does in 
relation to us. If she violates the public law in relation to us, 
that very public law authorizes us to violate it in relation to 
her. This is the law of retaliation. If she can naturalize 
our seamen serving two years on board her vessels, or con- 
tracting marriage with her subjects, we may naturalize her 
seamen entering voluntarily into our service ; the period of 
two years, prescribed by the British statutes, makes no dif- 
ference ; it affects not the principle ; it is entirely arbitrary ; 
she might as well have prescribed two months, or two days, 
or two hours. 

You will observe, Mr. Speaker, that the British Govern- 
ment, in executing this regulation, has no regard to the 
character of the American seaman. It is unimportant to 
her whether the seaman be a deserter or not from the 
American service; it is immaterial whether he deserted 
before or after the war. Indeed, no questions are asked ; 
it is sufficient for the purpose that he is an American citizen, 
willing to enter into her service, contracting marriage with 
a British subject, or serving two years on board her public 
ships. We demand nothing but reciprocity ; there is no 
justice or equity where there is no reciprocity; and be- 



Chap. VI.] FURTHER REMARKS OF COL. TROUP. 129 

tween natious there must be reciprocity, because there is 
perfect equality. Hence, Mr. Speaker, the justice, the 
lawfulness, the propriety of the regulation which I propose 
to you. Let us for a moment consider its expediency. En- 
gaged in a war with a formidable Power, we find ourselves 
in one important respect occupying a vantage ground. 
Shall we avail ourselves of it to the injury of the enemy, 
or shall we voluntarily abandon it':* The advantage results 
from the nature of things. The temptation to British sea- 
men to enter the American service is stronger than the 
temptation to American seamen to enter the British service ; 
and the fact is that more British seamen enter the American 
service than American seamen the British service. Shall 
we, I repeat, avail ourselves of this advantage during the 
war or not ? Kot, Mr. Speaker, that we want her seamen ; 
not that they are essentially useful, much less necessary to 
our service ; but that, by taking them from the enemy, we 
wound, and wound her where she is most vulnerable ; the 
loss to her is much more important than the gain to us. 
She sets the example, too ; and when we offer, as a condi- 
tion of peace, to prevent her seamen from entering into our 
service, we are instructed by her conduct that she chooses 
rather to enforce her practice of impressment, by arms, than 
to rely on any pledge which we can give for the exclusion 
of her seamen from our employ. 

I entreat gentlemen, therefore, to take my jn'oject of 
coercion instead of their project of })ropitiation. I have 
endeavored to show that the enemy is not to be conciliated ; 

First, Because the conciliatory overtureof 1807, substan- 
tially the same with the proposition of the gentleman from 
ISTorth Carolina, was rejected ; 

Second, Because the overture of Mr. Ilussell, of 1812, 
identically the proposition of the gentleman, was rejected; 

And, third, above all, that the overture repeatedly press- 
ed by Mr. Finkney, in 1810 and 1811, the inevitable 
effect of which would have been to throw us into the war 
on the side of England against France, was rejected. 

Sir, it will be asked, with wonder and astonishment, how 
an overture of this character, so favorable to the obvious 
policy and interest of England, could have been thrown 
back upon us with disdain; incredible as the fact is, it is 
true. The cause, I repeat it, is only to be sought in the 
ineffable contempt in which she has held us ; looking at our 
party divisions, and calculating on the weakness and fluctu- 
ation of our councils, she indulges a confident belief that 

17 



130 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VI. 

the fatal and vibratory policy whicli yielded the old em- 
bargo to the clamors' of a petty faction, would forever 
distinsjuish our cause. Yes, sir, it is to the forced repeal of 
the old embargo that we must look for the causes of our 
protracted quarrel with England. We had given no in- 
contestable evidence before of the influence of faction upon 
our councils; from that moment, however, she ceased to 
respect us ; from that moment, she never dreamed that it 
was possible for us to go to war. When the war came, she 
let go the Orders in Council, to be sure, but she still con- 
tinued to believe, and yet continues to believe, that the 
same spirit of faction, which forced the repeal of the old 
embargo, would drive you out of the war. She has been 
looking with hope and'^with confidence to the issue of the 
late elections. JSlow that she is disappointed in the result, 
there is no saying what she will do. Our safest and wisest 
course is, however, to combine the resources of the country 
to give force and vigor to the war. 

The objections to this bill, sir, are so various and contra- 
dictory, that one is at a loss in what manner to consider 
them. By some, it is said the force is too great ; by others, 
it is too small ; by some, the term of enlistment is too short ; 
by others, the innocent Canadians are to be overrun with 
it directly ; and others, again, are opposed to it, because 
standing armies are dangerous to republics, and because 
they confer great patronage and power. 

We are embarked in the war; a military force is neces- 
sary to carry it on : it must be one of two descriptions — 
militia or regulars. When we ask gentlemen for the mili- 
tia, they say no ! — the militia belong to the States ; they 
are constitutionally under the control of the State author- 
ities for local defence ; you shall not have them. Well, 
sir, in this, for thB present, we have seemed to ac- 
quiesce ; but, gentlemen, if you will not give us the militia, 
pray give us a regular force. No, say gentlemen, regular 
armies are dangerous toEepublics; they confer too much 
patronage. Well, if you will neither give us regulars nor 
militia, what will you do ? xind here, sir, at last we have 
extorted their sf/stem. Will you believe it, sir? — it is to 
repeal the declaration of war, lay down our arms, and 
throw ourselves upon the generosity of the enemy — he is a 
noble and generous foe, and will grant you reasonable 
terms. Thus, sir, are we to be bound hand and foot, with 
our locks shorn, and delivered over to the Philistines. 
We answer : this, gentlemen, may be a very good system 
for yon, but it is a very bad one for us ; if you will be 



Chap. VI.] FURTHER REMARKS OF COL. TROUP. 131 

united agaiust us, we will endeavor to be united for the 
country against you ; and when we negotiate, to negotiate 
with arms in our hands. 

Sir, there is one argument which, on this subject, I think, 
merits attention. As the power of declaring war is lodged 
with the Legislature, so the power of conducting it is vest- 
ed in the Executive. He is, constitutionally, the sole con- 
ductor of war ; he has the planning of the campaign, the 
adaptation of force, and the uncontrolled direction of it in 
the field. The object of the war is a speedy and honorable 
peace, and it is his duty so to direct the national force, that 
the object be attained in the best manner, and with the 
least possible delay. He is responsible to you, therefore, 
for the wise and judicious application of the force ; he is 
responsible to you by election, and by impeachment. Is 
not this res2)onsihility of some value to you? Does it not 
become you to maintain and cherish it ? Ton can only 
cherish it by granting, and granting liberally, the supplies 
asked for. If you withhold the supplies, you destroy the 
responsibilit}', you assume it to yourselves. If you grant 
the supplies with a niggardly or parsimonious hand, you 
impair the responsibility, you diminish it essentially. Lib- 
eral supplies of men and money are necessary to success ; 
your armies and navies must be well found, or they are 
inefiicient. How comes it the Emperor of France marched 
fifteen hundred miles from home, and vanquished forty 
millions of people, before we reduced a petty province of 
the enemy, with a population of only three hundred thous- 
and, and lying at our very door ; Military skill out of the 
question — it is because of his ample command of men and 
money. How is it that England makes such vast eftorts on 
the Peninsula ? It is because the Parliament never hesi- 
tates to grant the supplies, and to grant them liberally. 
But the term of enlistment is too short; so it is, if we want 
this force for the general purposes of the war ; for the 
general purposes of the war, five years' men are infinitely 
better ; but we do not want more five years' men than are al- 
ready provided for by law. The Executive asked this force, 
in addition, as a peculiar force, and for a temporary occasion ; 
they say, everything considered, it is best adapted to their 
object. Will we believe them ? Will we give them what 
they ask ? Or, will we give them what they do not ask ? 

Mr. T. concluded his speech, by adverting to the alleged 
misfortunes of the war, and attributing much of the delav 



132 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap, VI. 

of operations on land to the unwarrantable efforts of party, 
in introducing insubordination and disaffection in the East- 
ern States, &c. 

[1813.] The bill passed the House on the 14th of Jan- 
nary, under the title of " An act in addition to the act, 
entitled 'An act to raise an additional military force, and 
for other purposes,' " was slightly amended in the Senate, 
and was finally approved by the President on the 29th of 
the same month. 

The second and last session of the Twelfth Congress ter- 
minated on 3d March, 1S13. 



Chap. VII.] RE-ELECTION TO CONGRESS. 133 



CHAPTER VIL 



Col. Trouji's Re-Election to Congress. — Sessions of Thirteenth 
Congress. — Progress and close of the War. — Conscription. — 
Retirement of Col. Troup from the House of Representa- 
tives, &c. 



On the 24tli clay of May, 1813, the first session of tlic 
Thirteenth Congress began. Mr. Madison had been inaugu- 
rated, for the second time, as President, on the 4th of 
March preceding. The Representatives from Georgia, 
elected on the first Monday of October, 1812, were William 
Barnett, William W. Bibb, John Forsyth, Boiling Hall, 
Thomas Telfair and George M. Troup. 

On the 26th of May, Col. Troup was appointed Chair- 
man of the Committee on Military Affairs, and in this po- 
sition he continued during the war. A better selection 
could not have been made. It is admitted that he pos- 
sessed military talents of a high order. His advocacy of 
the war was based upon principle, and he was for pressing 
it with vigor. In afterwards reviewing his political life, 
" he was better satisfied with his speeches and efforts in 
Congress, in bringing on the last war with Great Britain, 
after her dastardly and disgraceful attack upon the Chesa- 
peake, than any other portion of his past political life."""' 
He possessed all the talent, foresight and firmness necessary 
for the post ; and when we consider the distinguished abil- 
ity on the Republican side of the House at that time, his 
appointment may be considered anything else than an 
empty compliment. 

It is not consistent with the plan of this work to go into 
a detail of the events of the war. Up to this period, the 
land forces had met with some reverses and some successes, 
and our gallant little navy had already given earnest, in a 

* See letter of Hon. Joseph H. Lumiakin, in a subsequent chapter.— Ed. 



134 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VII. 

few brilliant victories, of a future career of renown as re- 
markable as it was unexpected. 

This session of Congress was adjourned on the second day 
of August. Several important acts were passed for the de- 
fence of the country, tlie prosecution of the war, raising 
taxes, &c. 

[1813.] On the 14th of June, Col. Troup, from the Mil- 
itary Committee, introduced a bill to provide for the wid- 
ows and orphans of militia slain, and fx)r militia disabled 
in the service of the United States; and, on the 22d, he in- 
troduced a bill to continue in force, for a limited time, cer- 
tain acts authorizing corps of rangers for the protection of 
the frontiers, &c.; and, on the 23d, a bill supplementary to 
the act in addition to the act to raise an additional military 
force ; also one in relation to the regulation of the ord- 
nance ; and, on the 30th, a bill making further appropria- 
tion for fortifying the ports and harbors of the United 
States. But it would be useless to go into a consideration of 
the various measures proposed by him, from the appropriate 
committee, during the session. The reports of proceedings 
do not show that he took much part in debate. Indeed, 
this seems to have been a v»^orking and not a debating 
session. Such was the progress made in business, that, 
on the 16th of July, in secret session of the House, Col. 
Troup, from the committee on Military Affairs, made the 
following report : 

The committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred 
a resolution of yesterday, having relation to the present 
movements of the enemy, report : * 

That they have examined into the state of preparation, 
naval and military, made to receive the enemy, and are 
satisfied that the preparation is, in every respect, adequate 
to the emergency, and that no measures are necessary, on 
the part of the House, to make it more complete. 

[1813.] On the 6th of December, Congress re-assembled. 
The President congratulated that body on the success of 
our arms — the splendid victory of Perry on Lake Erie, of 
Gen. Harrison at the battle of the Thames, &c., &c. Ko 



Chap. VII.] KEIIARKS ON RESOLUTION OP INQUIRY. 135 

man felt more keenly than Colonel Troup the revers- 
es which our land and naval forces sometimes experi- 
enced, and no one rejoiced more heartily at the successes 
which crowned the efforts of the Administration and its 
friends to wage an unequal war against a haughty foreign 
foe, and insidious enemies at home. Late in tlie previous 
session, Mr. Bradley, of Vermont, had offered a resolution 
of inquiry " into the causes which led to the multiplied 
failures of the arms of the United States on our Western 
and North-western frontier," &c. The resolution had been 
laid on the table, and a resolution to print it negatived. 

At the present session, a resolution, of the same import, 
but calling on the President for information, not improper 
to be communicated, was offered by the same member. In 
voting against the resolution, 

Mr. Troup said, that if an inquiry of this sort was expe- 
dient at all, the shape of the proposition was perhaps as 
little exceptionable as could have been given to it. But a 
military inquiry, imder any circumstances, was a matter of 
so much delicacy that it ought to be well weighed and en- 
tered into with much caution and circumspection. This 
arose from the nature of such inquiries. Secrecy was the 
soul of military operations. Their details ought to be 
known to those concerned only ; for, if imparted to others, 
perchance they might find, their way to the enemy. It was 
very well known that military investigations frequently 
took place in the British House of Commons ; but the inva- 
riable object of them was to turn out the Ministry. Such 
an inquiry, however common, rarely v/as instituted even 
there ; and, whenever successfully urged, it had invariably 
been when the object of an expedition or campaign had 
been abandoned. Mr. T. said he should have liked to have 
heard from the mover of the resolution something like ar- 
gument; that much more of advantage would result from 
the adoption, than of evil that might ensue from it. Sup- 
pose any possible result of the inquiry — suppose, for in- 
stance, that by the communication, in answer to this 
resolution, it should be shown that General Wilkinson had 
been prevented by bad weather from commencing his op- 
erations in due season ; that, when he reached St. Eegis, 
General Wilkinson, without forming a junction with Gen. 
Hampton, had proceeded on Montreal ; or that, even having 



136 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VII. 

formed sucli a junction, it would have been unmilitary for 
him to proceed onwards ; suppose it should turn out that 
there had been the best military conduct possible on the 
part of all our Generals ; or, that the object of the cam- 
paign failed to be accomplished in consequence of the mis- 
conduct of either of them, or was the result of cowardice 
or treason ; suppose any result, j)robable or improbable, 
and where is the constitutional remedy? How would the 
gentleman lay his hand on the delinquent ? An investiga- 
tion, it appeared to him, could not properly be made by a 
tribunal which had not the power to apply the remedy. 
The investigation, as well as the remedy, rightly be- 
longed to another department of the government. Martial 
law was the only proper corrective to be applied to mis- 
conduct of military men. I^ot, Mr. T. said, that he was 
opposed to every species of military inquiry. Far from it. 
There were certain species of inquiry which it might be 
perfectly proper to institute. For the purpose of new- 
modeling an army, abolishing certain descriptions of force 
or grades of office, such inquiries might be necessary. 
But, said he, for the purpose of reaching any particular 
military commander, who is supposed to have forfeited the 
confidence of the people, the remedy is not yours ; it be- 
longs to the Executive. Not having the remedy in our 
hands, the inquiry cannot be productive of any advantage 
to the public concerns. But with respect to some evils 
which may result, Mr. T. said he would add a few words. 
What description of evidence would be necessary to the 
intelligent prosecution of such an inquiry ? Nothing short, 
certainly, of the plan of the campaign, the correspondence 
with the Generals, and the correspondence of the Gen- 
erals with each other, &c. Mr. T. dwelt on the evils which 
would result from exposing to the enemy a plan of the 
campaign, &c. Unfortunate as the termination of this 
campaign might have been, it would become more so by 
exposing to the enemy the official details of its plans and 
progress. Wherever we had experienced, during the war, 
anything of disaster or defeat, it was attributable to our 
ignorance of the force of tlie enemy. It was therefore ob- 
viously important to us to follow the example of the enemy 
in this respect, and keep him as much as possible in igno- 
rance of our military operations. He may occasionally 
derive information from a traitor or deserter ; but informa- 
tion so acquired bore no comparison to the injury which 
would result from affording the enemy official information 
on these matters ; and such official information, he presumed, 



Chap. VII.] ANOTHER RESOLUTION OF INQUIRY. I3Y 

would alone satisfy the object of the gentleman's motion. 
He hoped therefore it would not pass. ^ 

The resolution was passed by a large majority, but against 
the vote of Col. Troup and the two next to liim on the 
Military Committee. 

[1814.] On the Tth of January, Mr. Grosvenor, of New 
York, offered the following Eesolution : 

" That the committee on Military Affairs be instructed 
to inquire into the acts, rules and regulations, by which fur- 
loughs and leave of absence from the Armies of the Unit- 
ed States are obtained by officers thereof, and whether the 
said acts, rules and regulations ought to be revised, altered 
and amended ; and that they have leave to report by bill 
or otherwise." 

Mr. Troup objected to this motion, as traveling out of 
the province of the Legislature into that of the Executive. 
To Congress was granted the power of raising armies and 
granting supplies for them ; but to the Executive were con- 
fided the exclusive control and direction of the armies 
when raised. To enable him properly to execute this duty, 
the President had been vested with the most arbitrary pow- 
ers — the power of dismissing without assigning a cause, 
and, jointly with the military courts, of cashiering, and in- 
flicting on officers other punishments, even unto death. 
The power, then, of controlling military movements, said 
Mr. T., is not with us, but with the Executive. He may 
dismiss any officer of the Army, and even the Secretary of 
War, for misconduct ; and the power of control, possessed 
by this House, is the power of impeaching the President, 
if he fail in the performance of his duty. True it was, the 
enemy had, on a recent occasion, suprised us, found us 
slumbering in our beds in a thoughtless manner — but it 
was not for him to say where the blame lay of that occur- 
rence. In relation to the officers now absent from the 
Army, he could only say that he had heard — and he had 
heard because, in his capacity of Chairman of the Military 
Committee, it had become his duty to inquire into the mat- 
ter — that when the Army lately went into cantonments, 
there were found to be a considerable number of supernu- 
merary officers attached to it. An order had been issued 
by the commanding General to consolidate the troops into 
full and complete regiments, and allot to each of the regi- 
ments so formed its proper complement of officers. That 
18 ■ 



138 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUF. [Chap. VII. 

order being properly executed, tlie supernumerary officers 
were tlirown out of employ — and orders were given to them 
to repair to tlie different recruiting stations, where unques- 
tionably they would be occupied more beneficially to the 
service than in any other way. This was the fact in relation 
to the absence of the officers generally who were not in the 
Army. It struck him, Mr. Troup said, that there was some- 
thing objectionable in the object of the resolution. It 
proposed to make the manner of granting furloughs a mat- 
ter of legislative provision, when in fact it was a thing 
which could not properly be legislated upon, depending so 
entirely, as it did, on circumstances and on the state of the 
Army. If Congress were to make a law that no furlough 
should be granted, there was not an honorable man in the 
country who would accept a military office. This being his 
view of the subject, he hoped the resolution would not pass. 

In rejoining to the member from New York, 

Mr. Troup deprecated the disposition which appeared to 
prevail in that House to interfere in the management of the 
Army. If the members of this House undertook to make 
themselves judges of the manner in which the war ought to 
be conducted, there would be about as many opinions as there 
were members in the House ; and at last, after all their 
opinions, the war must be conducted by the Executive, in 
such manner as he might deem most consistent with the 
public interest. The gentleman last up had fairly avowed 
his ignorance of existing regulations on the subject. Mr. 
T. rose to inform the gentleman and the House of their 
nature ; by whom it would be agreed they were as com- 
prehensive as anything could be. Mr. T. read the following 
article from the regulations issued from the War Office : 

" No furloughs shall be given during a campaign ; nor 
any, but by the General commanding the district or army, 
and for the cause of disability, which disability shall be 
certified by regimental or hospital surgeon. 

" Furloughs shall , besides expressing the term of time grant- 
ed to absentees, express also an order to join the regiment, 
post or garrison, to which they may belong. 

" No order shall be given to officers seeking a furlough for 
their own convenience, which shall have the effect of enti- 
tling them to an allowance for transportation of baggage." 

This provision, Mr. T. said, was as imperative as it could 
be, and had all the force of law. There was, therefore, ob- 
viously, no amendment necessary to the existing provisions. 
In inquiring into the non-execution of this provision, if 
such was the object, the House assumed a duty not belong- 



Chap. VII.] CAPTURE OF WASHINGTON CITY. 139 

ing to it, and must go upon the principle tliat it had a right 
to punish officers for miscouduct; otherwise, it was not 
within its province to inquire into their conduct in this re- 
spect. 

The resolution was laid on the table. 

These speeches are given, not merely on account of their 
intrinsic excellence, but to show the zeal and activity of 
Col. Troup in that particular branch of the public service 
which had been so largely entrusted to his vigilance, and 
to show, also, his familiarity with the duties and details of 
his responsible post. 

Besides many plans and propositions which he presented 
to the House, for carrying on the w\ir, he spoke, during the 
session, on various subjects — most of them connected with 
the absorbing topic of the war. But we do not deem it 
necessary to refer particularly to them. This session closed 
on the 18th of April, 1814.^- 

Congress w^as again convened, by the President, on the 
lOtli of September, of the same year, by proclamation 
dated the 8th of August. Before the meeting of Congress, 
however, to wit, on the 23d of August, the British had 
taken possession of the city of Washington, burned the 
Capitol and other public buildings, and committed other 
acts of outrage unknown to civilized warfare. 

In his message to Congress, the President thus alluded to 
these outrages : 

" In the events of the present campaign, the enemy, with 
all his augumented means and wanton use of them, has 
little ground for exultation, unless he can feel it in the suc- 
cess of his recent enterprises against this metropolis and the 
neighboring town of Alexandria, from both of which his 
retreats were as precipitate as his attempts were bold and 
fortunate. In his other incursions on our Atlantic frontier, 
his progress, often checked and chastised by the martial 

*DuviDg this session, a new embargo act was passed, entitled "An Act laying an embargo 
on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States," and was approved by 
the President on the 17th day of December, 181.". It was of short duration, however, having 
been repealed on the 14th day of April, 1814, by the decisive vote, in the House, of one hun- 
dred and fifteen to thirty-seven. On the question of repeal, the Georgia delegation stood : 
Yeas— Messrs. Alfred Cuthbert, Forsyth and Telfair ; Nats— Messrs. Barnett, Hall and Teocp. 
Dr. Bibb had been elected, on 6th November, 1813, to the Senate, in place of Hon. William 
H. Crawford, resigned; and Mr. Cuthbert took his seat in the House, on 7th February, 181-t, in 
place of Dr. Bibb.— Ed. 



140 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Ciup. VII. 

spirit of the neighboring citizens, has had more eifect in 
distressing individuals, and in dishonoring his arms, than in 
promoting any object of legitimate warfare. And, in the 
two instances mentioned, however deeply to be regretted on 
our part, he will find in his transient success, which in- 
terrupted for a moment only the ordinary public business 
at the seat of government, no -compensation for the loss of 
character with the world, by his violations of private pro- 
perty, and by his destruction of public edifices, protected, 
as monuments of the arts, by the laws of civilized war- 
fare." 

Although not strictly pertinent to a biographical work, 
we cannot here omit the insertion of one of the many in- 
cidents of brutal outrage, which so excited the American 
people at the time, and the recollection of which at this day 
causes the patriotic heart to rejoice that the time has passed, 
when England, with all her boasted strength, can further 
outrage the feelings of a generons but then comparatively 
impotent foe. Although anonymous, the article appears to 
be truthful, and has been recently republished, substan- 
tially, in one or more of the newspapers of this country. 
It is as follows : 
To the Editors of the National Intelligencev : 

Among the deeds of vandalism committed during the 
late invasion of the city, by the enemy, I know of none more 
base and wanton than the mutilation of the monument at 
the Navy yard. This elegant monument of the liberality 
ana gallantry of our naval heroes, has been shamefully de- 
faced by the hand of some barbarian. On the base, the 
Genius of America is represented by a female figure point- 
ing to an inscription and raising a view of the battle before 
Tripoli, instructing her 'children who are standing beside 
her. The pointing finger and thumb have been cut off. 
History, a female tignre, who is represented as recording 
the event, has been robbed of her pen — and the figure of 
Fame, who is represented as descending in a cloud covering 
the deeds of her sons with the palm and crown of glory, 
has been robbed of the palm at the expense of the hand 
that held it. From every inquiry it is possible to make, 
there is no reason to doubt that it was the deliberate act of 
some of the British officers, as several of them were seen to 
be on the base of the monument, by the neighbors around 
the yard. 



Chap. VII.] BRITISH OUTRAGES. 141 

The deed itself appears to have some allusion to the time 
when it was perpetrated ; but poor indeed must have been 
the inspiration of the poet, not to have foreseen, in the 
victories of McDonough, Warrington and Blakeley, how 
soon History might resume her employment, and Fame cover 
our heroes with. I trust, an imj^erishable palm of victory. 

An Observer. 

Colonel Troup was at the seat of the national government 
when the capital was taken. As chairman of the Military 
committee of the House, he probably deemed it his duty 
to be there. His proud spirit was fired with indignation at 
these atrocities. We have it from good authority,* that 
amongst the few persons in Washington at the time, who 
did not forget their propriety in the general panic which 
pervaded all classes, were James Monroe, then Secretary 
of State, and GEORGE M. TROUP. 

In consequence of the destruction of the Capitol, Con- 
gress convened in a public building of the city which had 
been used for the Post and other public offices. 

On the 26th of September, a resolution was oftered, 
" That a committee be appointed to inquire into the expe- 
diency of removing the Seat of Government, during the 
present session of Congress, to a place of greater security, 
and less inconvenience, than this city, with leave to report 
by bill or otherwise." On this resolution, five of the mem- 
bers from Georgia, to wit, Messrs. Cuthbert, Forsyth, Hall, 
Telfair and Troup, voted in the negative. 

During this session. Col. Monroe (who had succeeded 
John Armstrong as Secretary of War,) addressed the fol- 
lowing communication to the Military Committee of the 
House : 

Department of War, October IT, 1814. 

Sir: The great importance of the subject, and the other 
duties of the Departm.ent, which could not fail to be very 
sensibly felt, at so interesting a period, by a person who had 

* Gen. Thomas S. Jesup, of the U. S. Army, who stated the circumstance to two gen- 
tlemen of Savannah, in 1854.— Ed. 



142 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VII. 

just taken charge of it, are my apology for not answering 
your letter of the 24th of September, at an earlier day, on 
the defects of the present Military Establishment. 

Due consideration has been bestowed on the subject- 
matter of that letter, and I have now the honor to sui)mit 
to the Committee the following report : 

1. That the present Military Establishment, amonnting 
to sixty-two thousand four hundred and forty-eight men, be 
preserved and made complete, and that the most efficient 
means authorized by the constitution, and consistent with 
the general rights of our fellow-citizens, be adopted, to fill 
the ranks, and with the least possible delay. 

2. That a permanent force, consisting of at least forty 
thousand men, in addition to the present Military Establish- 
ment, be raised for the defence of our cities and frontiers, 
under an engagement by the Executive with such corps 
that it shall be employed in that service within certain 
specified limits, and that a proportional augmentation of 
general officers of each grade, and other staff, be provided 
for. 

3. That the corps of engineers be enlarged. 

4. That the ordnance department be amended. 
Eespecting the enlargement of the corps of engineers, I 

shall submit hereafter a more detailed communication. 

For the proposed amendment of the ordnance department, 
I submit a report from the senior officer of that department 
in this city, which is approved. 

I shall be ready and happy to communicate such further 
remarks and details on these subjects as the Committee may 
desire, and shall request permission to suggest hereafter the 
result of further attention to, and reflection on, our Military 
Establishment generally, should anything occur which may 
be deemed worthy its attention. 

I have the honor to be, &c., 

James Moneoe, 
Hon. G. M. Troup, 

Chairman Military Committee. 

This letter was accompanied by " Explanatory Obser- 
vations," which, after other remarks on the occasion, the 
nature and the exigencies of the war, spoke as follows: 

" It follows, from this view of the subject, that it will be 
necessary to bring into the field, next campaign, not less 
than one hundred thousand regular troops. Such a force, 
aided, in extraordinary circumstances, by volunteers and 



Chap. VII.] MILITARY CONSCRIPTIOX. I43 

militia, will place 11s above all inquietiide as to the final 
result of this contest. It will fix on a solid and imperish- 
able foundation, our union and independence, on which the 
liberties and happiness of our fellow-citizens so essen- 
tially depend. It will secure to the United States an early 
and advantageous peace. It will arrest, in the farther pros- 
ecution of the war, the desolation of our cities and our 
coast, by enabling us to retort on the enemy those calami- 
tiesw hich our citizens have been already doomed to suft'er ; 
a resort which self-defence alone, and a saci-ed regard for 
the rights and honor of the nation, could induce the United 
States to adopt." 

Four plans were then submitted, with a view^ to carry out 
a system of national defence ; and, on the 27th of October, 
Col. Troup, from the committee on Military Affairs, report- 
ed a bill making further provision for filling the ranks 
of the regular Army, by classifying the free male popula- 
tion of the United States. The bill proposed, generally, to 
provide for the division of the whole free male population of 
the United States, by the assessors, into classes of twenty- 
five men each ; each class to be compelled, under a penalty 

of hundred dollars, to furnish, within days after 

such classification, an able-bodied recruit, for the service of 
the United States, &c., &c. 

It is hardly necessary to state that this whole system of 
raising men by draft, instead of recruiting, (which had very 
much failed in consequence of domestic opposition, especi- 
ally in ISTew England, to the war,) was denounced by the 
Federalists as a consckiption ; or that the occurrence of 
peace, soon afterwards, rendered the further consideration 
of the drafting system unnecessary — a system which seems 
to have met the approbation of General Washington,* 
in 1790, and which the great military powers of Europe 
have practically, although not always humanely, enforced, 
as necessary to successful military operations. 

It is only fair to let Col. Troup speak for himself on this 
and other plans, then before Congress, for the conduct of 

*For a full consideration of these plans, the reader is referred to the Annals of Congress, 
1S14— '15, vol.3, pp. 482 to 491— Niles' Weekly Kegister, toI. 7, PP- 294 to 301— Encyclopedia 
Americana, Article Consceiption.— Ed. 



144 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VII. 

tbe war. On the same day that he reported the bill for 
classifying the militia, (27th October,) he also reported 
a bill " to authorize the President of the United States to 
accept the services of volunteers who may associate and 
organize themselves, and offer their services to the govern- 
ment of the United States ;" also a bill " to provide for 
the further defence of the frontiers of the United States, by 
authorizing the President to augment the present Military 
Establishment." 

On the 2d of December, the House being in commit- 
tee of the whole on these several bills, as well as two bills 
from the Senate on that subject, the Senate bill authoriz- 
ing the President to call into service 80,430 militia, to 
serve two years, for the defence of the frontiers, being in 
order, 

Mr. Troup said, that the bill before them being a bill 
from the Senate, which had not been referred to the Mili- 
tary Committee, but which had been taken up on the mo- 
tion of the gentleman from South Carolina, (Mr. Calhoun,) 
the Military Committee, as such, were strangers to its pro- 
visions. It was not to be expected, therefore, that he could 
give to the House an exposition of its principles and de- 
tails. The gentleman from South Carolina was, no doubt, 
prepared to do so. For himself, Mr. T. said, he was op- 
posed to the measure of the Senate, and would therefore 
move to strike out the first section of the bill ; it would 
try the principle. The measure of the Senate, he humbly 
conceived, was inadequate to the object. It proposed to 
give you a militia force, when you wanted not a militia but 
a regular force. He respectfully suggested to the House, 
in considering this subject, the propriety of endeavoring, 
in the first place, to establish the principle on which they 
would rest their military measures for the further prosecu- 
tion of the war ; whether it were the principle of classifi- 
cation and draught, or classification and penalty ; whether 
the principle proposed by the Senate, or any other princi- 
ple, they could not, he humbly conceived, arrive at any 
conclusion satisfactory to the House, or useful and honor- 
able to the country, without adopting this mode of proceed- 
ing. Having established the principle, the Committee of 
the Whole, or a select committee, might consider the de- 
tails. 



Chap. VII.] SPEECH ON WAR MEASURES. ^45 

Mr. T. said, he very well knew that mankind were gov- 
erned bj their hopes and fears ; more by their hopes than 
their fears ; and he was not insensible of the effect which the 
dispatches received 3^esterday from our Ministers at Ghent 
might have on the measures under consideration. He 
should be very sorry if the effect would be to induce the 
Legislature to discontinue or relax the preparations neces- 
sary for a vigorous prosecution of the war. If such should 
be the eft'ect, the enemy might have good reason to exult in 
the success of a diplomatic trick played off' at Ghent, 
which, lulling us into a false security, would enable him to 
strike us at the opening of the next campaign, unarmed 
and unprepared. If he should be able to do so, he would 
begin to consider himself a match for the Yankees in cun- 
ning, and we would repent when it was too late. Mr. T. said 
he did not mean to say we would not have peace — politics 
were too uncertain to justify such a declaration — we may 
have peace in a few weeks. He only meant to say, that 
calculations founded on events which may happen at Ghent 
or at Yienna, and which would induce the Legislature to 
relax in the necessary preparations for the next campaign, 
ought not to be indulged ; measures ought to be taken, not 
on a supposition of speedy peace, but of protracted war. 
If peace happened, the preparation for war would do no 
harm. If peace did not happen, the want of preparation 
would do much harm ; it might lose the next campaign, and 
losing the next campaign might lose the objects of the war. 
I only suggest, therefore, sir, that it is wise and prudent 
to act as if the negotiations at Ghent would certainly fail. 
In submitting, sir, to the committee, the few observations 
with which 1 intend to trouble them on this motion, I will 
endeavor to satisfy them that the measure proposed by the 
Senate ought not to be taken, because it places our reliance 
for a successful prosecution of the war on irregular militia ; 
whereas, our reliance ought to be placed on disciplined 
troops, and that some other measure, therefore, ought to 
be resorted to — some measure calculated to fill the regular 
ranks and augment the regular establishment. 

In making provision for the further prosecution of the 
war, there would be but one object common to all — to 
bring the war to a speedy and honorable termination by 
all the means in the power of the Legislature. At least, it 
would be an object common to every genuine American, 
because every American had an interest in it. The war 
was a war for the country, and the result of it, whatever it 

19 



146 LIFE OF GEORGE M, TROUP. [Chap. VII. 

might be, whether glorious or inglorious, would determine 
the character of the country and government. If glorious, 
every American, without distinction of party, would partic- 
ipate in that glory ; if inglorious, every American, without 
distinction of party, would participate in the infamy of it. 
He knew very well that certain gentlemen had said the 
war was a party war, a war for the administration — but 
gentlemen would find, ere long, their mistake. They would 
find that Europe, the civilized world, Avho will alone be 
competent to pass judgment upon this subject, will not 
stop to inquire by what party in America this war was de- 
clared — by what party it was prosecuted — by what party 
brought to its termination. No, sir, they will look to the 
result, and to the result only, and as that result is glorious or 
inglorious for the country, so will the}" determine the charac- 
ter of this country and government. Every American, 
therefore, is interested to bring the war to an honorable 
termination by all the means in liis power. But how is this 
to be done? I answer, in the spirit and Language of per- 
fect simplicity, by endeavoring to create a motive in the 
enemy to discontinue the contest. But how is this to be 
effected? I answer, in the same spirit and language, by 
endeavoring to wound him where he is vulnerable. The 
enemy is vulnerable in two points ; in his commerce on the 
ocean — in his territorial possessions neighboring to us. If, 
by any possibility, (which I do not admit,) he should suc- 
ceed so efitectually to blockade our ports and harbors as to 
shut up completely our public and private armed vessels, 
he will cease to be vulnerable in his commerce; he will re- 
main vulnerable in his territorial possessions only. There, 
sir, I would carry the war without hesitation ; there I would 
endeavor to create a motive in him to discontinue the con- 
test. In proportion as he values his territory, in the same 
proportion will he make sacrifices to preserve it ; as you 
endanger the existence of his territory, in the same degree 
will be his motive to discontinue the war to preserve it. 
That he sets a high value on his territories you have the 
strongest evidence. He has already made great exertions 
to preserve them ; he has been able to preserve them only 
because you have not made great efforts to conquer them. 
You never will conquer them by taking the measure of 
the Senate. Will any man bblieve we can induce the ene- 
my to discontinue the war, by manning the lines of our 
frontiers — standing on the defensive — receiving and repel- 
ling his blows as well as we can ? No, sir, so far from inducing 
the enemy to abandon the contest, this mode of pros- 



CiiAP. VII.] SPEECH ON WAR MEASURES. l^f 

ecuting the war would only increase his motive to cohtiniiei 
it, whilst the motive on our part to discontinue it would be 
daily and hourly increasing. A dishonorable peace would 
terminate the contest — the surrender of our independence 
would terminate it — nothing else could. I would, there- 
fore, cari-y the war into the enemy's country, and with a 
force enabling you to wound him there. But the military 
force of the enemy has been greatly augmented. It is un- 
necessary to speak of the events by which this augmenta- 
tion has been brought about — -it is sufficient that we know 
and fee] it. Ordinary prudence requires that your own 
military force be augmented ; not merely in the same pro- 
portion — in a much greater proportion. In a much greater 
proportion, because, all otlier things being equal, he has 
one decided advantage over you — an advantage which we 
can neither destroy nor remove — I mean the command of 
the ocean, by which he compels you to stand upon the de- 
fensive on a line of frontier of 2000 miles, and to defend 
that line with 100,000 men against 10,000 afloat. He 
comes, no man can tell when, no man can tell where ; and, 
to be prepared at all, he compels you to be prepared at all 
points. I say, therefore, your augmentation ought to be in 
much greater proportion than his augmentation. But what 
description of our military force will you augment? Sir, 
if, after what has happened, I could for a moment believe 
there could be any doubt or hesitation upon this point, I 
would consider everything as lost ; then, indeed, would 
there be an end of hope and of confidence — -then, indeed, 
would there be nothing before us but gloom and despond- 
ency, and the horror of despair. But you will not doubt 
— you will place yovir reliance on a disciplined regular 
force ; upon a regular disciplined force alone can you rely 
for success. It matters not whether you determine to con- 
duct the warofi'ensively or defensively : if you determine to 
prosecute it offensively, you ought to rely mainly on a regular 
force — because, to be successful, you must meet and beat 
in the open field the regular veteran troops of Europe. 
Kot one step can you advance in the conquest of Canada, 
until you are prepared to do this. This can only be done 
by regular disciplined troops. If you determine to prose- 
cute the war defensively, you ought to rely mainly on regu- 
lar troops; for you must expect to meet and to repel regular 
disciplined troops-and this can be done most eflectually with 
regular disciplined troops. It will be done, not only more 
effectually, but more economically ; not only more econo- 
mically, but more conveniently for the country. It will 



148 LI^E OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VII. 

save the militia of the country, and in saving the militia it 
will save the active industry of the country — it will save, 
of course, the product of that industry; the product of 
that industry is national wealth — it will save the national 
wealth. 

But not only do these considerations urge you, in my 
humble opinion, to resort to all the means within your 
power to fill the ranks and augment the regular establish- 
ment; other considerations call upon you to make the army 
as respectable in number as it is already in character — 
considerations growing out of that character. An army 
little better than two years old, collected hastily from the 
plough, the loom and the workshops — without discipline, 
without even the rudiments of the military science — the 
officer to be instructed, that he might be qualified to in- 
struct the soldier — this army has performed deeds of hero- 
ism and of gallant daring that would have done honor to 
the best days of Greece and Rome, that will adorn the page 
of your own history. It is true that this army has not from the 
beginning every where triumphed ; it is true, it has not from 
the beginning carried everything before it ; it had not 
strength, it had not numbers. But this much may be said of 
it, and with truth, that, from the beginning to this moment, it 
has in no one instance dishonored the standard which it bore ; 
unless, indeed, a solitary instance may be appealed to as an 
exception — an instance as yet of doubtful and undecided 
character. More recently, its triumphs have been more 
brilliant; in open field, man to man, it has vanquished the 
conquerors of the conquerors of Europe. Who can hesitate, 
therefore, (the war continuing,) to make this army as re- 
spectable in number as it is already in character, to enable 
it to continue these triumphs ? The bill from the Senate, 
instead of proposing this, proposes to authorize the Presi- 
dent to call upon the States for eighty thousand raw militia ; 
and this is to be our reliance for the successful prosecution 
of the war. Take my word for it, sir, that if you do rely 
upon it, (the military power of the enemy continuing undi- 
vided,) defeat, disaster and disgrace must follow. As an 
auxiliary or secondary force, the militia may be relied on ; 
as principal, in a contest with regular troops, never. But 
the state of the army : upon this part of the subject, sir, I 
will say nothing, because I can say nothing that you are 
not already in possession of. You ha v^e authorized a force of 
sixty odd thousand men; you have raised thirty odd thousand; 
you have a deficiency of twenty odd thousand to supply ; 
these thirty odd thousand men, already raised, are distrib- 



Chap. VIL] SPEECH ON WAR MEASURES. I49 

uted over a line of four tlionsand miles of frontier ; is it 
any wonder, then, Mr. Speaker, that Canada has not been 
conquered ? No, sir, the wonder is not that Canada has 
not been conquered : the wonder is that this little army- 
has been able to keep its ground ; the enemy has been 
stronger in regular troops at all points from the beginning, 
and tlie very annunciation of this fact is enough to cover 
our little army with glory. You have a deficiency of 
twenty odd thousand to supply ; how will you supply it? 
Assuredly the bill from the Senate will not supply it; will 
the mode heretofore resorted to, supply it? Will the re- 
cruiting system supply it? No, sir; the recruiting system 
has failed ; I mean it has failed to fill your ranks. What 
are the facts upon this subject I They are, that two mil- 
lions of dollars have been applied, since January last, and 
thirteen thousand men have been enlisted; this, it may be 
said, is doing very well. So it is ; but what is the general re- 
sult ? The general result is, that our army is very little strong- 
er now than it was this time last year; and in testing the 
operation of the system, it is to the general result we must 
look. At the rate of thirteen thousand men per annum, it 
would take five years to raise the authorized force ; the re- 
cruiting system therefore has failed, it has failed to fill our 
ranks. I do not mean to say, sir, that the recruiting system, 
with the present high bounty and encouragement, would 
not eventually fill our ranks ; I am not disposed to say that 
it would not (provided the power of the enemy had con- 
tinued broken and divided by the troubles of the continent,) 
have answered our purpose ; but I do say, that under ex- 
isting circumstances and for our present purpose, the re- 
cruiting system ought not to be relied on ; it cannot be 
relied on to fill our ranks by the opening of the next cam- 
paign, and to risk the loss of the next campaign is to risk 
the loss of everything. But is there no mode to which you 
can resort for filling the ranks, but voluntary enlistment ? 
I would be extremely sorry if we could not, I have al- 
ways thought this Government, when administered in the 
true spirit of the Constitution, the strongest government in 
the world, even for the purposes of war ; "but if the doc- 
trine set up of late be true, this is the weakest and most 
contemptible government on earth ; it is neither fit for war 
nor peace; it has failed of all the ends for which govern- 
ments are established. It cannot be true that this Govern- 
ment, charged with the general defence, authorized to 
declare war and to raise armies, can have but one mode of 
raising armies, whilst every other government that has ever 



150 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VII. 

existed has had an absolute power over the population of 
the country for this purpose, and has actually exercised it. 
But this question is not properly before the House, and I 
will not go into an argument to show that you can, like other 
governments, resort to other modes of raising armies than 
that of voluntary enlistment ; that you can resort to classi- 
fication and draft, to classification and penalty, or any other 
mode which a sound discretion may in a particular state of 
the country dictate and justify. All I intend to say at 
present is, that you have an absolute power over the popu- 
lation of this country for this purpose, and that in the 
present state of the country it is wiser to resort to classifi- 
cation and draft, than to resort to the bill from the Senate; 
the one will give the men certainly and expeditiously, the 
other will not. But, sir, compare the measure of the Sen- 
ate with the measures proposed by your own committee, 
and which are before you. The measure of the Senate pro- 
poses to authorize the President to call out eighty thousand 
militia for two years, and this is called a remedy for the 
evil of State. Now, sir, the evil of State, as I understand 
it, is not the want of a militia force, but the want of a regular 
force. The evil of wliich the country complains, of wliich 
the Government complains, of which the militia themselves 
complain most grievously, is the number of militia in 
service; the incessant harassment, vexation and oppres- 
sion of the militia, and the extraordinary and burdensome 
expense of that particular service. As a remedy for this 
grievance, the Senate propose to detach eighty thousand 
militia. The President has at command, and has always 
had at command, a million of militia ;^ and in this extraor- 
dinary crisis of our aifairs, when pressed by a formidable 
enemy, and surrounded with difficulties, the remedy pro- 
posed by the Senate is eighty thousand militia, which, it 
must be admitted on all hands can be no better, for at least 
the next campaign, than raw militia called out in the ordi- 
nary way. But the bill proposes to furnish regular troops. 
How? By holding up in terrorem a militia classification 
and draft ; exempting every three classes which shall 
furnish two regular soldiers, from the liability to furnish 
three militia men. Do the friends of this measure believe 
— will they with any degree of confidence assert, that it 
will have the efi'ec't, even partially, to fill the ranks ? I 
think not. And suppose it should fail to furnish regular 
soldiers, what will be our condition in the months of July 
and August next? Much worse, sir, than our condition in 
the months of July and August last. The war continuing, 



Chap, VII.] SPEECH ON WAR MEASURES. 151 

the power of the enemy unbroken, our condition will be 
desperate. The regular force every day falling off, (for be 
it remembered these eighty thousand militia will be with- 
drawn from the operations of the recruiting service,) we 
shall have to opjiose to the enemy a remnant of regular 
troops, and these eighty thousand raw militia — and who 
will answer for the consequences? In the months of 
August and September last, we had in the field the regular 
army and upwards of one hundred thousand militia, and 
we nowhere found ourselves too strong. It is true, the 
Senate propose to improve the recruiting system — an im- 
provement which two years ago this House proposed to the 
Senate, but which the Senate "then thought proper to reject, 
I mean the enlistment of young men between the ages 
of eighteen and twenty-one. But if these eighty thousand 
militia for two years should happen to be, as they are like- 
ly to be, that very description of population upon which 
this system would otherwise operate, what hope can be en- 
tertained that the recruiting system, even with its improve- 
ments, will be as productive the next year as the last ? 
I humbly conceive, Mr. Speaker, that the measure of the 
Senate, proceeding from the best intentions, will fail in the 
accomplishment of our object. I conceive, with much 
deference to the House, that the measures reported by their 
own committee are much to be preferred. They propose — 
first, to augment the regular establishment to one hundred 
thousand men ; second, to authorize the President to accept, 
under liberal encouragements, the service of volunteer 
corps ; third, to authorize the President to receive into the 
service of the United States, State troops, which may be 
made to serve in lieu of the militia of such States. The 
principle of the system is, to substitute, as far as we are 
able, a regular force for a militia force, as more efficient, 
more economical, and, for the militia themselves, more con- 
venient — and one hundred thousand regulars would take 
the place of two hundred thousand militia — two hundred 
thousand militia would cost as much as three hundred 
thousand regulars. If we can command an hundred thous- 
and regular troops, it may, notwithstanding, be necessary, 
on particular emergencies, to resort to the militia. To en- 
able the government still further to spare the militia, vol- 
unteers are authorized. They also will be more efficient 
than ordinary militia. It is impossible to say to what ex- 
tent these corps will offer themselves — to whatever extent 
the government is enabled to avail itself of their services, 
to the same extent will the militia be saved. 



152 I^IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VII. 

ment slioiild derive no aid from this source, it has another 
resource in State troops. They also will take the place of 
the militia. The militia will still continue the bulwark of 
the country. Whenever the existence of the country shall 
be endangered, it is the militia that must save it. The sys- 
tem proposes to relieve them from the constant harassment 
of which they complain, and justly complain. To raise the 
regular troops, you have the alternative, proposed by the 
Secretary of war, or the committee. The plan of the Sec- 
retary of War, is the only effectual one. If we have en- 
ergy and spirit to take it, it will fill our ranks and augment 
our regular establishment, certainly and expeditiously. 
The people will justify the measure, because they will feel 
that it is necessary to the maintenance of the honor, the 
character and independence of the country. The plan of 
the committee, though less efficient, is, in my humble opin- 
ion, better than that of the Senate, Where it fails to give 
you men it will give you money. It will be certain to give 
some men and some money. I hope the House will agree 
to strike out the section. 

After a long debate upon the Senate bill above referred 
to, it passed the House on the 14th of December, with 
sundry amendments ; but it was, on the 28th of the same 
month, postponed in the Senate, in consequence of its dis- 
agreement to the amendments, until the second Monday of 
March, when the session would have ended, and it would be 
otherwise unnecessary to consider the question. During the 
discussion, the system of conscription, as it was called, was 
attacked and defended with great warmth and signal abil- 
ity ; but, happily for the country, the time was approaching 
when neither enlistment nor drafting would be longer 
wanted. On the consideration of the bill for " making 
further provision for filling the ranks of the Army of the 
United States," a Federal member from Massachusetts, 
Mr. Cyrus King, exclaimed, " James Madison^ President 
of the United States, is the father of this system of con- 
scri'ption for America^ as his unfortunate friend Bona- 
parte was of that of France; " but Mr. C. J. Ingersoll, of 
Pennsylvania, afterwards, referring to an act of Parliament 
for recruiting the regular army, enacted in 1756, and to 
another act passed in 1Y5Y, said, " tlms, sir, it apjpears that 



Chap. VII.] LETTER TO GEN. MITCHELL. 153 

Lord Chatham lylanned and Wolfe executed a precedent for 
Bonaparte's conscriptive system." 

The following letter from Colonel Troup to Gen. D. B. 
Mitchell, deserves insertion here : 

Washington, Dec. ISth, 1814. 

Dear Sir : I have received your favor of the 28th ult. 
I will cheerfully embrace the first opportunity that pre- 
sents itself, to recommend young Foster for a commission. 

Congress, as you perceive, malve little progress. The 
Taxes and Bank will be the prominent measures of the 
session. It is not reduced to certainty that the latter will 
pass, though I think it probable. We must rely on volun- 
tary enlistment to fill our ranks, Congress not having 
firmness to resort to any other more effectual measure. 
Another dispatch vessel is looked for daily. AVhat will be 
the accoimts from Ghent, you can as well conjecture as my- 
self, having all the information we have here. It would 
be unreasonable to say we cannot possibly have peace. 
Yours, very respectfully and sincerely, 

G. M. Tkoup. 

Having deemed it an act of justice to Gov. Troup to 
refer thus at length to his connection with the much abused 
and misrepresented subject of conscription, it is also due to 
him that the further history of the system before Congress 
be here also inserted. 

[1815.] On the fifteenth of February, the Committee of 
the Whole House, to which the bill reported by him for 
classifying the Militia had been referred, were discharged 
from its further consideration, and the bill was indefinitely 
postponed. 

On the 6th of the same month, the same subject, in some- 
what difierent form, had been brought before the House, on 
the following resolutions submitted by Mr. Rich, of Yer- 
mont : 

Resolmd^ That the committee on Military Afl'airs be in- 
structed to inquire into the expediency of providing, by 
law, for arranging the citizens subject to the direct tax, 
into classes, in such manner that each shall, as far as may 
be practicable, consist of persons residing contiguous to each 

other, and from which together hundred dollars shall 

be due ; and of permitting each class to furnish one man 
20 



154 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VII. 

for the regular Army, within a given number of days, in 
lien of said tax. 

Resolved^ That the said committee be instructed to in- 
quire into the expediency of augmenting the direct tax for 
the j)resent year, so as that it may be sufficient to procure 
thousand men at hundred dollars each. 

The resolutions were denounced, amongst other reasons 
assigned, because of their alleged tendency to obstruct the 
recruiting service ; and t*he plan proposed was denominated 
a "wild project." 

The House having agreed to consider the resolutions, 

Mr. Troup (the chairman of the Military Committee,) 
said that, being a member of the committee to whom it was 
proposed to refer this subject, it did not become him to ex- 
press any decided opinion on it. All he hoped was, that 
the House would not instruct the committee on this head, 
unless determined to perfect the proposition into the shape 
of a law ; inasmuch as the committee, in its ministerial 
capacity, had already cognizance over this subject, and 
could report on it without instruction, if deemed by them 
expedient. With respect to the military subjects of the 
present session, the House could not fail to recollect that the 
report of the Secretary of War had stated what force we 
had, and what addition to it was desirable for the further 
defence of the country. It had been proposed to Congress 
to augment the regular force to one hundred thousand men, 
for which purpose it was proposed to resort to the most en- 
ergetic means. It was necessary for the committee of 
this House, said Mr. T., to endeavor to ascertain the opinion 
of both branches of the Legislature as to the different modes 
of raising men. We did so ; and found that no efficacious 
measure, calculated certainly and promptly to fill the reg- 
ular army, could be effectually resorted to. Measures were 
matured and proposed by the committee, but were not pressed 
on the House from the solemn conviction that there was no 
disposition in the Legislature to act finally on the subject. 
This being ascertained, other measures were adopted to im- 
prove the recruiting service, to authorize the acceptance into 
the service of volunteers and State troops in the nature of reg- 
ulars. If the whole number authorized of the two latter 
could be commanded, together with the sixty thousand 
regulars, (supposing the ranks to be filled,) it would give 
an effective force of one hundred and forty thousand men, 
and might be reasonably expected to produce one hundred 



CuAP. VII.] HIS ARMY MEASURES. 155 

thousand ; as great a number, perhaps, as, under pres- 
ent circumstances, the finances of the country would bear. 
Even at this late day of the session, however, Mr. T. said, 
he was willing to resort to the only certain and effectual 
mode of augmenting the regular army to a hundred thou- 
sand men, to the support of which the finances of the 
country might, before the adjournment, be made adequate. 
He hoped, at least, the House would so decide on this ques- 
tion, as to make the vote on it decisive of their real views 
in regard to it. 

The resolutions were, finally, referred to a committee of 
the whole House ; but the foregoing speech of Col. Troup 
gives the best and the true reasons why they were never 
afterwards called up or acted on. 

On the same day that he reported the bill for classifying 
the militia, (27th October,) he had also, as we have seen, re- 
ported a bill " to authorize the President of the United 
States to accept the services of volunteers who may asso- 
ciate and organize themselves, and offer their services to the 
Government of the United States " ; also a bill " to provide 
for the further defence of the frontiers of the United States, 
by authorizing the President to augment the present Mili- 
tary Establishment." The former of these two was, after 
amendment, passed into a law on the 27th of January after- 
wards ; and, at a prior day of the session, an act was passed 
making further provision for filling the ranks of the Army 
of the United States. These were, it w^ould seem, the " other 
measures " to which reference is made in the foregoing 
speech, and which rendered useless any efibrt to raise troops 
by drafting or conscription. Let those w^ho might be dis- 
posed to censure the Secretary of War and the Chairman 
of the Military Committee for proposing this plan for con- 
ducting the war, remember the actual condition of the 
country at the time, the difiiculties attending the recruiting 
service, and the levy of troops in any other way ; and that 
the judgment of eminent military men has been in favor of 
this method as the proper one for raising the most effective 
military force. 

[1815.] On the 8th of January the battle of New Or- 



156 T^IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VII. 

leans was fought and won, Kesolutions of thanks and 
congratulations were introduced in both Houses — in the 
Senate by Mr. Giles, and in the House by Col. Troup. A 
treaty of peace had been signed at Ghent, on the Q-ith of 
December, but the news of it did not reach this country 
until the 11th of Februar}^. On the 20th of that month, 
the President laid before Congress copies of the treaty, the 
ratifications of which had been diily exchanged. 

On the 16th of February, the resolutions from the Senate 
expressive of the thanks of Congress to Gen. Jackson and 
the troops under his command, being amended and coming 
up before the House on the question of ordering them to a 
third reading, 

Mr. Troup, of Georgia, said that he congratulated the 
House on the return of peace ; if the peace be honorable, 
he might be permitted to congratulate the House on the 
glorious termination of the war. He might be permitted 
to congratulate them on the glorious termination of the most 
glorious war ever waged by any people. To the gloiy of it 
General Jackson and his gallant army have contributed not 
a little. I cannot, sir, perhaps language cannot, do justice 
to the merits of General Jackson and the troops under his 
command, or to the sensibility of the House. I will there- 
fore forbear to trouble the House with the usual prefatory 
remarks ; it is a fit subject for the genius of Homer. But 
there was a spectacle connected with this subject upon 
which the human mind would delight to dwell — upon which 
the human mind could not fail to dwell with peculiar pride 
and exultation. It was the yeomen of the country march- 
ing to the defence of the city of Orleans, leaving their 
wives and children and firesides, at a moment's warning ; 
on the one side, committing themselves to the bosom of 
the mother of rivers ; on the other, taking the route of the 
trackless and savage wilderness for hundreds of miles ; 
meeting at the place of rendezvous — seeking, attacking and 
beating the enemy in a pitched battle — repulsing three 
desperate assaults with great loss to him — killing, wound- 
ing and capturing more than four thousand of his force — 
and finally compelling him to fly, precipitately, the country 
he had boldly invaded : the farmers of the country tri- 
umphantly victorious over the conquerors of the conquerors 
of Europe. "I came, I saw, I conquered," says the Amer- 



Chap. VII.]- THE MILITARY PEACE ESTABLISHMENT. 157 

ican hnsbandman, fresh from liis plough. " The proud vet- 
eran who triumphed in Spain, and carried terror into the 
warlike population of France, was humbled beneath the 
power of my arm. The God of Battles and of Eighteous- 
ness took part with the defenders of their country, and the 
foe was scattered before us as chaff before the wind." ^ It 
is, indeed, a fit subject for the genius of Homer, of Ossian 
or Milton. 

We should be pleased to give this speech entire ; but it 
is unnecessary. The war was closed ; and to Col. Troup 
the country was much indebted for wise and calm counsels 
devised in the committee-room, and for many stirring 
appeals on the floor of the House — all calculated to bring 
to a happy issue a contest in which his intellect and his 
heart were united in vindicating the honor of his land. 
He had not been a candidate at the election in 1814, and, 
as the thirteenth Congress was about to expire, he was on 
the eve of retirement to private life, entitled to and fully 
enjoying the confidence and respect of his countrymen. 
Before retiring, however, he felt that he had a duty to per- 
form to the brave army whose operations he had so essen- 
tially aided. He, accordingly, on the 22d of February, 
reported, from the Military Committee, a bill fixing the 
Military Peace Establishment of the United States. The 
bill provided that the Military Peace Establishment should 
consist of such proportions of artillery, infantry and riflemen, 
not exceeding in the whole ten thousand men, as the Presi- 
dent should think proper; the corps of engineers to be 
retained ; the general ofiicers to consist of two Major Gen- 
erals and four Brigadier Generals ; the President to cause 
selections to be made of officers from the existing force, 
and to cause the supernumerary ofiicers to be discharged 
as soon as circumstances should permit ; three months pay 
to be given to each officer, &c,, so honorably discharged, 
and, in addition, to each officer and private a donation of 
land, &c., &c. 

The bill seems to have passed the House substantially as 
it was reported, and afterwards passed the Senate, with 



158 LIFE OF GEOEGE M. TROUP. . [Chap. VIL 

amendments, the principal of which was that striking out 
donations of land to disbanded officers and soldiers. On 
the question that the House recede from their disagreement 
to this amendment, Col. Troup voted in the negative. The 
motion, however, prevailed, and the Act was approved by 
the President on the third of March. 

When the bill was before the House, Col, Troup made 
a long and able speech in its support, which deserves to be 
recorded here, but which is reluctantly omitted because of 
the space already devoted to military subjects. 

The House adjourned, sine die, on the third of March, 
1815, and Colonel Troup, having thus finished forever his 
connection with that branch of Congress, retired to his 
plantation in Laurens County. 



Chap. VIII.]' ELECTION TO THE U. S. SENATE. 159 



CHAPTER YIII. 

Col. Trotrp's Election to the United States Senate. — His Course 
in that Body. — Resignation. — Election as Governor of Georgia, 
&c. — Internal Improvement. — Land Lottery. 

The retirement from public life which Colonel Troup 
had proposed to himself, was to be of no long duration. 
The Legislature of Georgia assembled in iJTovember, 1816; 
and one of the duties devolving on them was the election 
of a Senator in the Congress of the United States, for the 
term which was to begin on the 4:th of March, 1817. 

We have already seen that Dr. William W. Bibb had 
been elected to fill the residue of Hon. Wm. H. Crawford's* 
term, made vacant by' the appointment of the latter as 
Minister to France. Colonel Troup having been urged to 
become a candidate for the full term, he wrote, as follows, 
to his friend Governor Mitchell : 

Laurens, Oct'r 30th, 1816. 

Dear Sir : Having lately suftered a severe cut on the 
second finger of my right hand, which is not yet healed, I 
hold the pen with great difiiculty in answering your friend- 
ly letter of the 19t]i instant. 

To the solicitations of my friends, heretofore, I have 
uniformly opposed the resolution, together with the motives, 
with which I retired from Congress. They have ceased to 
operate with their original force, but I cannot disguise that 
it is with great reluctance I have answered to their more 
recent requests on the subject of the approaching election 
for the Senate, that " they might command my services." 
My name will by no means be used for any ofiice, unless 
it should seem to be the general wish. 

If the state of my hand permit, I will have the pleasure 
to see your Excellency in the course of the ensuing week. 

* On the resignation of Mr. Crawford, William Bellinger Bulloch, of Savannah, was 
appointed in his place, on the Sth of April, 1813, by the Executive of Georgia, and took 
his seat in the Senate on 24th May, and continued there until the adjournment of Con- 
gress on the 2d of August. Dr. Bibb was elected, in November following, Mr. Bulloch being 
no candidate. — Ed. 



160 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VIII. 

In tlie mean time, I remain, my dear sir, most respectfully 
and sincerely, Your friend and servant, 

G. M. Tkoup. 
His Excellency, Gov. Mitchell, 
Milledgeville. 



On tlie Sth of November, 1816, tlie election came on, 
and resulted in the choice of Col. Troup over Dr. Bibb. 
The latter immediately resigned his seat for the unexpired 
term, and Col. Tr-oup was, on the 12th November, elected 
in his place. It is said that Dr. Bibb had made himself 
unpopular by voting for the " compensation law ;" in other 
words, for a bill which, amongst other things, provided for 
payment " to each Senator, member of the House of Re- 
presentatives, other than the Speaker, and delegate, the 
sum of fifteen hundred dollars," annually, in lieu of the 
usual per diem pay. There is no doubt that the people of 
the country were very much excited at the passage of this 
law ; and yet, as it would seem, for very little cause. The 
act was passed in March, 1816, and was soon after made the 
subject of presentment by grand juries in different parts of 
the State. 

The following sketch from Gov. Gilmer's work, entitled 
" Georgians," pages 108 and 109, is deemed appropriate 
here : 

Dr. Bibb was a member of the Georgia Legislature at a 
very early age for entrance into public life. William H. 
Crawford and John Forsyth had, perhaps, more of the con- 
fidence of the authorities of the State than Dr. Bibb. 
George M. Troup alone rivaled him in the love of the peo- 
ple.- He was elected a member of the House of Repre- 
sentatives in 1806, and, some years after, Senator in Congress. 
He was a very influential member during the restrictive 
commercial policy of Mr. Jefferson's administration, and 
afterwards one of Mr. Madison's most confidential advisers. 
The passage of the compensation law excited the indigna- 
tion of the people to such fury, that all the members of 
Congress from Georgia, except one, were turned out of 
ofiice, though the measure was not voted for by some 
of them ; because, as the people said, they talked at all 
times, upon every subject, but objected not a word against 



Chap. VIII.] IN THE SENATE. 161 

getting increased pay per day. Mr. Madison soothed Dr. 
Bibb's mortiiication ibr this withdrawal of their confidence 
by his constituents, by appointing him Governor of Aha- 
b'ama Territory. He accepted the appointment, and re- 
moved to Hiintsville. Two years after, the peoi^le of 
Alabama organized a State Government. Dr. Bibb was 
their first Governor. During the summer of 1820, whilst 
riding rapidly to escape from a shower of rain, his horse 
stumbled, and injured him so that he died. 



On his way to Washington, Col. Troup came to Savan- 
nah, where, after some necessar}^ preparation, he embarked 
by sailing vessel bound for the Chesapeake. He arrived at 
Washington on the 11th of December, and on the next day 
took his seat in the Senate, when, also, the credentials of 
his election for six years from the 4:th of March, were read 
and filed. On the 13th, he was placed on the Finance, and 
also the Military, Committee. During this session, he sub- 
mitted a resolution, which was adopted, instructing the 
committee on Claims to inquire into the expediency of 
authorizing the payment to Georgia, of certain claims, for 
the services of militia called out under the authority of the 
United States, during the years 1792 and 1793, for the de- 
fence of said State against Indian invasion. An act was 
also passed for the payment of a sum of money to the State 
of Georgia, under the articles of agreement and cession 
between the United States and Georgia ; also an act au- 
thorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to pay to the State 
of Georgia fifteen per centum upon the quota of direct tax, 
for the year 1816, assumed and paid by Georgia. He voted 
for a repeal of the compensation law; and, at every 
stage, against a bill " to set apart and pledge, as a permanent 
fund for internal improvements, the bonus of the National 
Bank, and the United States' share of its dividends." Af- 
ter sundry amendments, the bill passed both Houses," but 
was arrested bv the President's veto, because of the " in- 



* On the passage of this bill in the Senate, Judge Tait, the other Senator from Georgia, 
voted for it; on its passage in the House, every member from Georgia voted for it, except Hon. 
Alfred Cuthbert, wlio was absent.— So. 

21 



162 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VIII. 

superable difficulty" felt by that officer " in reconciling the 
bill with the Constitution of the United States." 

Congress adjourned on the 3d of March, 1817, and the 
Executive session of the Senate terminated on the 6th 
of the same month. 

[1817.] The first session of the Fifteenth Congress began 
on the first day of December. Col. Troup took his seat on 
the 10th. He was appointed to a place on the Committee 
on Foreign Relations, and was made Chairman of the Mil- 
itary Committee of the Senate. 

On 31st December, the following resolution was submit- 
ted by Mr. Burrill, of Rhode Island : 

Besolmd, That the committee to whom was referred the 
petition of the committee of the yearly meeting of the So- 
ciety of Friends, at Baltimore, be instructed to inquire into 
the expediency of so amending the laws of the United 
States, on the subject of the African slave trade, as more 
efi'ectually to prevent said trade from being carried on by 
citizens of the United States, under foreign flags, and also 
into the expediency of the United States taking measures, 
in concert with other nations, for the entire abolition of said 
trade. 

[1818.] The resolution coming up for consideration, on 
the 2d of January, and having been read, 

Mr. Troup rose to object to the last clause of the resolu- 
tion, which contemplated a concert with foreign nations. 
He thought this a most extraordinary j)roposition, and as- 
serted that, according to his apprehension, no measure could 
be adopted more replete with danger to the welfare, to the 
very existence of this country, than a formal coalition, for 
any purposes, with any foreign nation whatever. It was a 
policy, a resort to which ought always to be resisted, 
and he hoped would be resisted, with a firmness not 
to be overcome. The object of the first part of the 
proposition, for making our laws against the slave trade 
more perfect and more effectual, Mr. T. approved, and was 
willing to co-operate in it. He was ready to go as far as 
any one, in enforcing, within our own jurisdiction, the ab- 
olition of the African slave trade. Within our land line, or 
water line, even on the high seas, he was willing to enforce 
our own laws on the subject ; but to direct the President to 
enter into any compact or concert for this object with any 



Ohap. VIII.] THE SLAVE TRADE RESOLUTIONS. 153 

foreign nation or individuals, was a step he wonld never 
consent to. He conld not separate from foreign alliances tlie 
idea of foreign politics and foreign wars ; and the proposed 
measure he should view as the commencement of a system 
of foreign connections, tending to foreign alliance, to which 
Mr. T. expressed great repugnance. Unless, therefore, the 
propositions embraced by the resolution were separated, he 
should be obliged to vote against it. 

Mr. Burrill having spoken on the subject, 

Mr. Troup replied, that the proposed concert for abolish- 
ing a particular traffic on the high seas, pre-supposed resist- 
ance, and resistance was to be repressed by the united 
means of the nations entering into the compact. This, 
certainly, Mr. Troup said, was one step towards, and might 
be the prelude to, alliances with foreign powers. Besides, 
he said, this was not one of those traffics proscribed by the 
law of nations, though prohibited by our statutes ; and he 
doubted the expediency of such a combination to put down 
a trade which was thus permitted. If motives of humanity 
are urged in favor of this measure, let us, said Mr. T., begin 
at the fountain head. If the policy of this country is to be 
changed ; if the well-remembered parting advice of a 
wise and good man is to be departed from, and we are to 
commence a system of " entangling alliances," let us look 
for some objects worthy of the change ; let us aim at 
the abolition of impressment, and free our seamen from that 
odious tyranny ; or, let us enter into the cause of South 
Am.erican emancipation ; let us not enter, for the first time, 
upon a system so fraught with danger, without some such 
great justifiable motive; without the certainty of accom- 
plishing some object of an importance corresponding with 
the sacrifice we are to make. 

Mr. Burrill having read the tenth article of the Treaty 
of Ghent, to show that the proposition was not a novelty, 
and that the United States were specifically pledged to 
Great Britain to use " their best endeavors " to abolish the 
trade, 

Mr. Troup replied that, in the very provision referred to, 
the Executive had cautiously and pointedly abstained from 
compromittingthe country to any connection for this object 
— the article of the treaty stipulating simply that each 
party would, with good faith, carry into effect its own 
statutes on the subject of this trade. The article, in short, 
engaged the parties to do that which^ Mr. T. said, would 



164 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VIII. 

have been clone by the United States withont any sucb 
stipulation. 

The same subject coming up again on the 12th January, 

Mr. Troup said he liad no intention, when he objected the 
other day to a part of the resolution, to involve the Senate 
in a debate upon it ; and he very plainly perceived that, 
at this stage of it, it would be considered premature to 
discuss at large the merits of the question. But he would 
submit to the Senate if it were competent to them, in union 
with the President, to pledge the arms and resources of the 
country, in a concert with foreign Powers, for any object 
whatsoever. He denied that it could be done in the spirit 
of the Constitution. It would be a pledge of that which we 
had not. The arms and resources of the country were con- 
fided elsewhere ; they were deposited, not with the two, 
but the three, branches of the Legislature ; and, in fact, 
were not even to be found there. The people were essen- 
tially the depositary of them, and their Representatives the 
organ. Yet it was proposed to pledge, by an act of the 
Executive power only, the arms and resources of a nation, 
in concert with foreign Powers, for the abolition of the 
slave trade. Gentlemen seemed to entertain very different 
significations of the term concert ; for his part, Mr. T. said, 
he knew of but one signification, which, in its application 
to the present subject, could legitimately attach to it; a 
signification sustained equally by the law of nations, the 
law of diplomacy, as far as he knew such a law, and the 
universally received acceptation of the term — concert with 
foreign nations. Sir, what is it but a term for common 
councils and common efforts? The gentlemen propose to 
themselves a great object — no less than the universal abo- 
lition of the slave trade ; other nations, they acknowledge, 
hold out against them. Will they be content, then, with a 
concert of common councils? Assuredly they will not. 
Between nations, common councils mean nothing, unless 
sustained by common efforts ; and common efforts between 
nations mean nothing less than war, if war be necessary for 
the object. War must be necessary, so long as other na- 
tions assert the right and hold to the practice of the slave 
trade. It is true that you may begin with negotiation, but 
it is certain that, if negotiation fail, you must resort to war. 
What would avail a treaty stipulation which would pledge 
the United States to exert, in concert with Great Britain, 
their advice and persuasion to induce Spain and Portugal 



Chap. VIIL] THE SLAVE TRADE RESOLUTIONS. 1^5 

to abolisli the slave trade ? Spain and Portugal would care 
nothing about your advice and persuasion, especially when 
you told them that you intended nothing more. Ehetoric 
and eloquence are not the instruments of nations for the 
execution of grand projects. He was well persuaded that 
the gentleman from Rhode Island meant to deal in some- 
thing more substantial ; idle and insignificant verbiage 
could not suit his purpose; for, if it did, he already found it 
in a treaty. This word concert, therefore, Mr. President, 
means something — it means connection, combination, alli- 
ance, for a given object; it means entangling alliance. 
You are admonished against entangling alliances ; for what 
reason? Because our Government is of its own kind, in- 
sulated, the only Republic in the world, between which 
and other governments there is no common principle, no 
common feeling, no common sympathy ; they may combine 
for their own interests ; they may enter into concert for 
your destruction ; they will not be so ready to combine with 
you either to promote your interests, or interests common 
to yon and them. You propose a concert with crowned 
heads ! They never concert with themselves, but broils, 
and quarrels, and wars follow in the train. History is full 
of them ; and, if entangling connections, sir, between mon- 
archs, who wield the sword and the purse, who make peace 
and war at their will, be fruitful of these mischiefs, what 
may we not expect when you enter the lists without the 
means of doing what you engage to do? Gentlemen will 
say this mode of reasoning is entitled to little weight ; it is 
speculative — admit it ; the argument of experience is alone 
admissible, and the argument of experience is decisive. 
The only instance which I recollect, sir, of a concert be- 
tween this country and any foreign Power, is that of the 
Prench Treaties of 1778. It was a concert, and it turned 
out a most entangling one. It was a concert, too, for an 
object near and dear to the American heart ; a concert for 
liberty and independence. A more important object can 
never present itself. In the one treaty, we stipulated the 
guaranty of the French American possessions ; in the other, 
we stipulated that France (being in a state of belligerency 
with any other Power,) might use our ports freely with her 
ships of war and prizes. Now, sir, I pray you, how did we 
fulfil our stipulations? We did not fulfil them at all. We 
got out of the difiiculty, I will not say dishonorably, but as 
well as we could. I believe, sir, the men who presided 
over our councils, at the time of which I speak, were hon- 
orable men, and were willing to do whatever they could to 



IQQ LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VIII. 

carry into effect, in good faith, what they engaged to do; 
but, sir, they could not ; they wanted the sword and the 
purse, and the Constitution had intrusted them to others ; 
they were intrusted to the people. I sincerely believe, sir, 
that France saw the embarrassing dilemma, and took pity 
upon us. She saw we could not execute the guaranty 
without going into the war, and she forbore to press it. 
But, in consequence of her thus forbearing, she thought she 
might the more rightfully demand the rigid execution of 
the other article. We had stipulated to allow French ships 
of war and prizes to go and come freely, and to remain at 
pleasure ; it was a stipulation partial in effect. France 
being at war with England, it admitted to France what it 
refused to England. It was inconsistent, too, with the 
spirit of President Washington's proclamation of neutrali- 
ty. France, having abandoned her claim for the fulfillment 
of the guaranty, thought she was entitled to a favorable 
construction of the article relating to ships of war and prizes. 
She demanded the right of arming, and fitting, and com- 
missioning in our ports. We resisted, and eventually we 
found ourselves in a war with France. This, sir, is the only 
instance of a concert between this country and a foreign 
Power which I recollect ; such has been the result of it, and 
such will ever be the result. It is unavoidable from the na- 
ture of our political institutions. We enter into embarrass- 
ing stipulations ; we are called upon to execute them ; we 
catl uponthe people to draw the sword and advance the purse; 
they answer us. No ! we have nothing to do with your treaties 
of concert or your guaranties ; if you are unwise enough 
to enter into them, you may get out of them as well as you 
can ; you shall not do so at our expense, or with our aid 
and assistance. And so, sir, they will answer always. 
They will go to war for rights which belong to them ; for 
their honor, their independence ; for interests entirely their 
own ; they will not for rights and interests which are 
extraneous, and in which they feel no concern. This was 
the lesson taught by the people to the men who directed 
our councils on the occasion to which I referred ; an awful 
warning never to put to hazard the peace of this country 
by connections with foreign Powers for any objects what- 
soever, much less for objects foreign to our interests and 
our feelings. The treaties adverted to were negotiated un- 
der the former government. It is believed that nothing 
similar has occurred under the present. Mr. T. said he 
would no longer tire the patience of the Senate with such 
desultory remarks : but he could not forbear the expression 



Chap. VIII.] HIS RESIGNATION. 167 

of his surprise that the proposition of the gentleman should 
be urged with so much zeal and earnestness, when it was 
well known to the Senate and the world, that from the 
origin of the present Government, almost up to the present 
moment, American citizens, the flesh and blood of the land, 
had been seized by the Algerines, handcufted and chained, 
incarcerated and enslaved, four thousand miles from their 
homes and the bosoms of their families, and no instance is 
recorded of a proposition having been submitted to the 
Senate to advise the President to enter into concert with 
foreign nations for the abolition of Algerine slavery. 

The course and speeches of Colonel Troup, on this sub- 
ject, evince the soundness of his judgment, and his political 
forecast. His warnings and predictions have been justified 
and fulfilled by events occurring at the present day. It is 
only during the last year, 1858, that Great Britain, on pre- 
tence of a right to visit American vessels for the purpose 
of capturing slavers, under the " concert " treaty between 
the two governments for suppressing the African slave 
trade, carried this assumed right so far as to endanger the 
peace of the two countries, and was at last compelled to 
acknowledge the justice of our complaints against the in- 
solent exercise of a pretended right which the United States 
never admitted, and which our ancient enemy has been at 
length compelled to abandon. 

This session of Congress closed on the 20th of April. 
It is unnecessary to dwell upon the proceedings, or to spe- 
cify the measures of the session in which Col. Troup took 
part. He had left his home reluctantly ; private and do- 
mestic considerations required his presence there ; and, bid- 
ding farewell once more to public pursuits, he resigned his 
place in the Senate, and retired to his home in Laurens. 

At the time of which we write, there was, politically 
speaking, but one party in Georgia. As the best evidence 
of the fact, the Legislature of 1816, which elected Colonel 
Troup to the Senate, not many days afterwards elected 
Gen. John Mcintosh, Charles Harris, H. Mitchell, Jared 
Irwin, John Rutherford, Gen. David Meriwether, John 
Clark and David Adams, Electors of President and Vice 



168 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VIII 

President ; and who, though belonging to different local 
parties in Georgia, were known to be favorable to the elec- 
tion of Mr. Monroe and D. D. Tompkins to the two high- 
est offices in the gift of the people. Mr. Crawford was the 
acknowledged leader of one local party, and Gen. John Clark 
of the other. They were personal enemies, and, in one sense, 
political rivals. The towering intellect and high position 
of Mr. Crawford, pnt him, in some respects, far above the 
men of his day in Georgia, and her people looked forward 
to the time as not far distant, when, besides the lofty posi- 
tions already occupied by him, the highest honor of the re- 
public would almost certainly be conferred on him. In 
biding his time as the looked-for successor of Mr. Monroe, 
his prospects became blasted by sudden and severe disease, 
which, in the judgment of many of his friends and warm- 
est admirers, unfitted him for the first place in the gift of 
his countrymen. For several years he had been unconnect- 
ed with active participation in the local politics of Georgia. 
Soon after his return from France, he was appointed Sec- 
retary of the Treasury, and Avas in the discharge of the 
duties of that office at the period to which we refer. 
JSTevertheless, his name and his character were potent in 
Georgia. As a general thing, his friends were the friends 
of Col. Troup ; and it was the Avish of these fi-iends, and of 
Mr. Crawford also, that Col. Troup should become a candi- 
date for the Gubernatorial Chair of Georgia. 

The time for which Gov. Kabun had been elected, ex- 
pired in November, 1819. That gentleman had died in 
October, just previously to the meeting of the General As- 
sembly which was to elect a Governor. Gen. Clark and 
Col. Troup were the opposing candidates — the latter " in- 
duced by urgent application of his friends to consent to 
become a candidate." It does not become us to speak of 
the comparative merits of the two men. The bitterness of 
the times has passed away, and it is the duty of all, but es- 
pecially the impartial historian, to tread lightly over the 
ashes of the dead. Born in Revolutionary times, and 
trained, under the eye of his patriotic father, to the use of 



Chap. VIII.] POSITION OF PARTIES IN GEORGIA. 1(^9 

arms in defence of liis conntrj, Gen. Clark had done ser- 
vice to the State. Inferior to Col. Troup, in education, 
though equally brave, he had the same good fortune to en- 
list troops of ardent and devoted friends. 

The election resulted in the choice of Gen. Clark, by a 
majority of thirteen votes. The probability is, that this re- 
sult was, for private reasons, gratifying to the defeated can- 
didate, although mortifying to his friends. The main reason 
which induced bis retirement from the Senate — domestic 
affliction in the loss of his wife's health — still operated with 
full force to check political aspiration, if he had any. His 
consenting to serve, if elected, showed a disposition to yield 
rather to the advice and solicitations of friends, than to 
obey his own inclinations. 

The same result occurred in 1821. Gov. Clark was re- 
elected by a majority of tv.'o votes — Clark 74, Troup T2. 
The late Hon. Joseph W. Jackson, than whom none better 
understood or appreciated the character of his friend, and 
who was a member of the House at the time, thus wrote : 

" The writer of this memoir well remembers the intense 
excitement that preceded this election, and the course of 
Col. Troup at Milledgeville. His supporters urged him to 
visit the members, and to canvass for their votes. He re- 
fused, alleging, truly, that a candidate for the Executive chair 
should not dehase that high office hy seeking to injluence the 
Legislative votes. He had refused^ through life, to electioneer^ 
and he was too old to do it novj?^^ In looking back at these 
reverses, the intelligent reader cannot fail to perceive that, 
as events afterwards proved, the time had not come when 
Col. Troup's talents and firmness were 'absolutely needed 
at the helm of state. There was then no imminent peril, 
no impending crisis, Avhich required them. 

The following letter to Gen. D. B. Mitchell, will show 
that Col. Troup was not inattentive to the interests of Ag- 
riculture : 



* White's Statistics of Georgia, page 553.— Ed. 

22 



lYO LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VIII. 

Laurens, Deer. 12, 1822. 

Dear Sir: — The enclosed letter for General Mcintosh,'- is 
without the proper direction, because I do not know either 
the place of his common residence, or the means by which 
it may be most expeditiously conveyed to him. I take the 
liberty to trouble you with it, that it may reach him cer- 
tainly and without delay. 

The object ©f it is to procure horses for the plough — ^In- 
dian Tackles, young and sufficiently strong — say 10 or 12 of 
them. I presuppose they may be bought low ; and that, 
being much in the habits of trade, he can furnish them as 
cheap as any body. Be so good as to charge yourself with 
the receipt of his answer, and forward it to me. 

Pray, what is the state of the atmosphere at Milledge- 
ville, or have you been much there ? 

Your friend and serv't, 

G. M. Teoitp. 



[1823.] The gubernatorial contest was renewed in 1823 ; 
but Gov. Clark was no longer in the field. The rival can- 
didates were George M. Troup and Hon. Matthew Talbot 
— the latter a friend and supporter of Gov. Clark, The 
election took place on Thursday, the 6th day of l^ovember, 
in the Representative Hall, by joint ballot of the two 
Houses. The result was as follows : 

For George M. Troup, - - - • - - 85 
" Matthew Talbot, ------ 81 

Majority fur Col. Tron}), ----- 4 

The inauguration of the new Governor took place, Avitli 
the usual solemnities, on the Tth, when he delivered the fol- 
lowing admirable 

INAUGURAL ADDRESS : 

Fjclloav Citizens : — I come to the administration of your 
affairs with unfeigned diffidence of my own ability to man- 
age them to your advantage. The indulgence which you 
have sliown me, on every past occasion, is my inducement 
to undertake it, and my incentive to persevere. At every 

* The Indian Chief, Gen. William Mcintosh, already noticed, and who figures in a succeed- 
ing portion of this history. — En, 



Chap. VIIL] HIS INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 171 

step of my progress, there will be errors to extenuate — 
weaknesses to overlook. JSTevcrtheless, I come into office free 
and unfettered, without passions to gratify or pledges to re- 
deem ; and what is deemed to he right, under the Consti- 
tution and the laws, will be done. 

I have nothing to promise but good intention — save only, 
that I will endeavor that the laws he executed, the public 
functionaries, so for as depends on me, held to a strict ac- 
countability, and the State, according to its means, defend- 
ed against its enemies. 

The season of peace, gentlemen, in which wo find our- 
selves, is the season for the cultivation of the arts of peace ; 
and what is wanting in the works of Providence, designed 
for the purposes of man, 'tis for the industry of man to 
improve ; and to improve what God has bountifully given, 
is gratitude to God. In the measures, therefore, which you 
may deem proper, to extend or facilitate the great work of 
internal improvement, you may, at all times, rely on my 
hearty and zealous co-operation. With regard to the other 
measures, embracing the leading interests of our country, 
that in them we will move in harmony and in concert, I 
have the best assurance in the patriotism and intelligence 
with which I am surrounded. 

Fellow-citizens — let us cease our strifes — let our divisions 
be at an end. The march of science is so steady — the pro- 
gress of illumination so irresistible in this great Und glow- 
ing country, that the generation to come may look back 
upon our foibles with pity and compassion. Let us discard 
our selfishness, therefore, and let our motto be — GOD AND 
OUR COITNTRY. 

The following message of the Governor to the Legisla- 
ture, is so characteristic of his honesty and his aversion to 
political intrigue, that we insert it for the benefit of the 
reader. The caucus referred to was one for the nomination 
of persons to be voted for as President and Vice President 
of the United States. The rest is explained by the mes- 
sage. 

Executive Depaktment, Geoegia, 
MilUdgeville, lUliDec, 1823. 

Having been made the instrument of conveying lo you 
the accompanying document transmitted to me by Gov, 
Carroll, of Tennessee, at the request of the Legislature of 
that State, I would cheerfully have submitted it to you 



172 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VIII. 

without comment ; but, as forbearance in this respect might 
be construed into approval on mj part of any thing con- 
tained in it, I do not hesitate to lay before you the crude 
suggestions to which it has given rise, trusting that they 
will be regarded with all the indulgence to which good in- 
tention may entitle them. 

This paper purports to be a formal act of the Legislature 
of Tennessee, and its object the denunciation of what it 
pleases to call a Caucus, which may possibly be held at the 
city of "Washington, by members of Congress, for certain 
purposes. What precise and definite meaning the Legisla- 
ture of Tennessee designed to attach to the word Caucus, I 
cannot conceive. It is not an English word. It is not to 
be found in our dictionary, and, being an uncouth word and 
of harsh sound, I hope never will. It is not to be found in 
either the Constitution or laws of Tennessee, and being a 
mere abstract conception, cannot become a subject of legis- 
lation at all. 

The paper evidently refers to a contemplated meeting of 
members of Congress, to influence a decision on a certain 
question. Can any act of the Legislature of Tennessee 
affect the ijersons of members of Congress, or others at the 
city of Washington? There it has no more jurisdiction 
than it has beyond the sea. Members of Congress, like all 
other officers of government, stand in two relations to so- 
ciety ; the one public, the other private. They forfeit noth- 
ing of their rights as individuals, b}^ assuming public duties, 
and the most arbitrary despotism could not prevent their 
assembly for purposes not expressly inhibited by the laws. 
Such an assembly for convivial or social purposes, might 
intermingle with its amusements the gravest discussions, 
and, among these, the very question the discussion of which 
by that assembly the Legislature of Tennessee so ardently 
denounces. It would give to itself a name other than that 
of Caucus, and then the vain, unprofitable resolution of the 
Legislature of Tennessee would not have even a shadow on 
which to fix itself. 

It is thus that Legislatures, on the eve of great elections, 
stepping aside from their legitimate province, enter the 
field of contention, inflame the angry passions, making the 
contention more fierce and the tumult more boisterous ; 
and it is thus, that instead of seeing a great and wise people 
moving with calmness and deliberation to the election 
of their first magistrate, the political arena presents a scene, 
where, as in the turbulent days of Rome, the bitterest feel- 
ings of human nature are in conflict ; which, from idle 



Chap. VIII.] INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT IN GEORGIA. IY3 

agitations i>'row into tempest, and, when they do no worse, 
make us discontented with ourselves and bring representa- 
tive government into disrepute everywhere. 

G. M. Teoup. 

The direct reference made by the Governor, in his in- 
augural, to the question of Internal Improvement, the 
importance of the subject, and a disposition not to break 
the connection in the narrative of political matters in sub- 
sequent chapters, induce us to give here a brief but 
connected view of that subject, and the important part 
which Governor Troup acted on it. 

The position of Georgia, in regard to the trade of the 
West and the commerce of the Ocean, had called the atten- 
tion of her people and her politicians to the subject of 
internal communication long before any regular system 
was devised. To go no further back, the Legislature of 
1820 passed joint resolutions looking to the gradual but 
certain introduction of such a plan ; and, on the 22d Decem- 
ber, of that year. Gov. Clark approved an act for the ap- 
pointment of " a fit and competent person for topographical 
and civil engineer of the State of Georgia, " at a salary of 
three thousand dollars, and providing that " the duties of 
the said topographical and civil engineer shall consist in 
surveying the navigable rivers and waters of this State ; in 
exploring the obstructions of the same ; reporting the best 
plans for removing them ; suggesting the practicability and 
utility of internal improvement ; in directing and suj^erin- 
tending the application of such appropriations as the 
Legislature may make from time to time for the purpose 
of internal improvement ; in rendering an annual report 
to the General Assembly of his official transactions, and of 
the trans'actions of his department ; and in such other 
duties as are usually imposed upon such officers, and as 
may be imposed on him, from time to time, by law." 

In his annual message of 1823, Governor Clark said : 

" I am constrained to inform you that I have not, during 
my administration, been able to select a suitable character, 
who w^ould accept the appointment of civil and topograph- 
ical engineer. There liave been, notwithstanding, several 



174 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROFP. [Chap. VIII. 

applications made for the appointment of gentlemen of 
respectable character and standing, bnt not of experienced 
knowledge, which I deem an indispensable reqnisite in the 
person on whom it is conferred. I am still of the opinion 
which I had the honor of suggesting to the last Legislature, 
that it would be advisable to unite with the State of North 
Carolina in procuring the services of Mr. Fulton.- " 
In his annual message of 1824, Governor Troup said : 
The period has arrived when Georgia can no longer 
postpone the great work of internal improvement. If con- 
siderations of the highest order could not prevail, State 
jDride would be a motive sufHciently strong to determine 
her. Some of her sisters are already far in advance of her. 
Almost all of them have, to a greater or less extent, em- 
barked in it. She sees the most enterprising and persevering 
among them already deriving advantages from it, which 
place them in the first rank of opulence and power. A 
State, therefore, like Georgia, blessed by Providence with 
the means of reaching the highest commercial prosperity, 
by a road plain, direct and practicable, will no longer 
linger in the rear. She will begin, and, with a little pa- 
tience and perseverance, instead of decaying cities and a 
vacillating trade, and, what is most humiliating, that trade 
seeking an emporium elsewhere than within her own limits, 
she will witness the proud and animating spectacle of 
maritime towns restored and flourishing, new ones rising 
up — her trade steady and increasing — her lands augmented 
in value and improved in cultivation — the face of the 
countiy beautified and adorned ; and she may witness what 
was once deemed impossible to human eftorts, the Western 
waters mingling with her own, and the trade of Missouri 
and Mississippi floated through her own territory to her 
own seaports, and all this within the compass of her own 
resources, provided the ordinary economy, prudence and 
foresight be employed to husband, cherish and improve 
them. The first and most important step Avill be to com- 
mand an engineer of science and practical skill, and 
ineasures have been taken to procure the services of such 
an one. As it is indispensable that he rank among the 
highest of^his profession, it follows that his compensation 
should be fixed at such a rate as other States have assigned 
to the like order of talents and qualification. I am per- 
suaded you will not liesitate to do this. The Legislature of 
Georgia is too enlightened to .undervalue the services of 

* Hamilton Fulton; afterwards appointed Chief Civil Engineer by Governor Troup.— Ed. 



Chap. VIII.] REMARKS ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 1Y5 

mind ; and, looking toiler true interest in this particular, she 
will find the best economy in the highest compensation. 
The critical accuracy necessary in every stage of the pro- 
ceeding, the minuteness of observation, the correctness of 
calculation, and the application of the mathematical science 
to the whole, require the first order of cultivated mind, and 
under the direction of such a mind there is moral certainty 
that mistakes or errors of a fatal character will not occur. 
In avoiding these you save an expenditure, in comparison 
with which the salary of a lifetime would be as nothing. 
The laborious topographical explorations and surveys which 
must precede the plans and estimates for the execution of 
the great works, will also require time ; for they are these 
which will determine what ought first to be undertaken — 
what most beneficial — what most practicable — what least 
expensive. 

In his message at the extra session in May, 1825, the 
Governor again referred to the subject; but as this portion 
of the message is intimately connected with the Indian con- 
troversy, and the whole of it may be found in a subsequent 
chapter, we forbear extracts here. 

At the regular session of 1825, he spoke thus, in his an- 
nual message : 

A resolution of the Legislature, instructing the Governor 
to authorize the survey of the intermediate country, with 
the view of connecting by a canal or road, or both, the 
waters of the Gulf and Atlantic — a work of not less im- 
portance to the Union than the connection of the two seas 
l3y the Isthmus of Panama, and of most easy execution, 
has not been carried into effect?. The opinion of the Ex- 
ecutive on this subject has been made known to the Legis- 
lature, The authorities of Georgia cannot pass beyond 
their own limits into the territory of any other State, or of 
the United States, for any such objects, without committing 
trespass, and it is not understood that the most practicable 
line of communication between the two waters would fall 
wholly within the jurisdiction of Georgia, In truth, this 
is most appropriately a work for the United States, without 
any constitutional hinderance or impediment ; a short cut 
through her own soil would accomplish it, and the whole 
Union would immediately partake the benefits. The atten- 
tion of the President had been invited to this subject before, 
and whilst he acknowledged the great importance of the 



176 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VIlI. 

work, it is not known that any measures have been taken 
in relation to it. His attention was called, at the same 
time, to the practicability of uniting the eastern and west- 
ern waters, by a canal turning the base of the Apalachian 
mountains at their southern extremity ; an operation of 
more obvious utility, because of less doubtful practicability, 
than the contemplated one for connecting the Chesapeake 
and Ohio. A promise was given that this also should re- 
ceive early consideration, but nothing more has been heard 
of it. Without bringing into question here the power of 
the General Government to make canals at pleasure within 
the jurisdiction of the States, it would, perhaps, be more 
advisable for the State governments to depend for inter- 
nal improvements on their own powers and resources ; and 
1 am happy to inform you that the State of Tennessee, 
having a common interest with ourselves, has given une- 
quivocal indications of her willingness to co-operate with 
us in this undertaking. We have continued assurances that 
a civil engineer of competent qualifications may soon be 
commanded for the service of the State. To give you an out- 
line of the views of the Executive on the general subject, I 
have caused the instructions, which, in the absence of the 
Legislature, would have been given him, to be laid before 
you. And here permit me to suggest the policy of applying 
a portion of the fund set apart for internal improvement, 
to the construction of roads which shall so traverse the 
country as to make the communication between the differ- 
ent counties and the commercial towns, more safe, easy and 
expeditious. Considering climate and localities, it may be 
deemed expedient to invest the capital in a description of 
labor, which, under proper direction, would not only be 
efficient for the accomplishment of the work, but could be 
ultimately made to return to the treasury a large propor- 
tion of the amount invested. 

From the "instructions" we make the following extracts, 
which are deemed appropriate here : 

The first movement will be the exploration of the country, 
with a view to make yourself master of its topography ; and, 
as our large rivers have their rise in the north-western ex- 
tremity of the State, there I would first invite your attention, 
that you may discover the facilities and difficulties ofiered by 
the ground — the water which may be commanded for all 
purposes, and the points at which the rivers may be most 
usefully connected by a grand transverse canail. To ascer- 
tain these with precision, surveys are to be made, levels to 



Chap. VIII.] INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. I77 

be taken, and estimates formed ; and these, witli the utmost 
diligence, will require time. This first movement will have 
steadily in view an eventual communication between our 
own waters and those of Tennessee or Alabama, and the 
connection of both by a grand canal with the Atlantic, 
from which, as a great artery, the lateral ones will proceed, 
connecting the various sections and interests of the coun- 
try, so that it may be said by each and by all that none 
have been neglected, and that nature and art had combined 
effectually to make of a great community one famil^^, be- 
tween the most distant members of which the intercourse 
would be safe and easy always. The Alabama and Chat- 
tahoochee, which empty into the Gulf of Mexico — the Ten- 
nessee, which disembogues into the Ohio, and the Savannah 
and Alataraaha, which discharge into the Atlantic, all take 
their rise at the foot of the Apalachian mountains, and may 
almost be said to have a common source. How far the 
union of these may be practicable — at what points it would 
be most feasible, and at what labor and expense it may be 
accomplished, are objects not now claiming your attention 
for any other purpose than, by a bird's-eye view of the 
country, to ascertain what may be done at a future day, 
either by the General Government, or by the States more 
immediately interested in opening the communication, and 
at what points either the Savannah or our extreme western 
waters may first receive either tJie water of the Tennessee 
or Alabama. So far from details being required in relation 
to these, general conclnsions and conjectural estimates, 
formed from your observation of the country, will be con- 
sidered satisfactory. 

On the 20th December, 1824, a joint resolution had been 
approved, authorizing and requesting the Governor " to 
engage the services of a competent civil and topographical 
engineer, on such terms as may be deemed advantageous, 
and that he cause the said engineer, with the, necessary 
aid, to make such surveys, estimates and reports as may be 
practicable, in pursuance of the laws of this State, in order 
that the same may be laid before the Legislature with a 
view to the commencement of a system of internal im- 
provement, and that the sum of ten thousand dollars be 
appropriated to carry this resolution into eftect." The ap- 
propriation was accordingly made during the same session. 
23 



178 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VIII. 

On the 21st of December, 1825, an act was passed, " to 
create a Board of Public "Works, and to provide for the 
commencement of a system of Internal Improvement." It 
provided for the election, by joint ballot of both houses, at 
that session, and annually thereafter, of seven persons, who, 
together with the Governor for the time being, should con- 
stitute " The Board of Public Works of the State of Geor- 
gia," one Commissioner to be chosen from each Congres- 
sional District, the Governor to be ex-officio President of 
the Board, which was to be a body corporate, (fee; and it 
was declared that " the Board shall, as soon as may be, cause 
the necessary surveys, estimates and reports to be made 
and presented to the Legislature, with reference to the open- 
ing, improvement and construction of roads, bridges, navi- 
gable waters and canals in this State," &c., &c. Fifty 
thousand dollars were appropriated to the purposes of the 
act. Under this act, the following persons were elected 
Commissioners : John Elliott, for the first, John Schley, 
for the second, John G. Pitman, for the third, Wilson 
Lumpkin, for the fourth, Joel Crawford, for the fifth, Elijah 
H. Burritt, for the sixth, and James Hamilton Couper, for 
the seventh, Congressional District. 

It is evident, from what has been said, that a great system 
of canalling was in the contemplation both of the Gover- 
nor and the Legislature. Bail Koads were then hardly 
thought of in this country, or in any part of the world. The 
success of the New York and Erie Canal had prepared the 
minds even of the Southern people for most extravagant 
expectations from that branch of internal improvement. 
The result is too well known to be here particularly men- 
tioned. But no less praise is due to those patriotic men who 
devised the first grand scheme of internal communication, 
under the administration and the auspices of Governor 
Troup. 

Pursuant to a call of the Governor, the first meeting of 
the Board took place atMilledgeville, onthe20thof March, 
1826. It was addressed by the Governor, its ex-officio Pre- 



Chap. VIII.] INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. I79 

sident, in a speech which we Avonld gladly transcribe, if 
we had room for it. The following extract will he read 
with interest : 

" Fortunately, a happy concurrence of opinions between 
the Legislative and Executive branches of the government, 
has relieved us, for the present, from the embarrassment of 
rival claims and coniiicting interests. Expanded views 
liave been preferred to a narrow and contracted policy, and 
we commence our labors untrammeled by local projects or 
undigested details. The outlines are marked, and the sub- 
divisions are to be sketched and filled up by degrees. Our 
resources are not to be exhausted by idle or vain experi- 
ments, or dissipated l)y the heedless policy of attempting 
everything and perfecting nothing. We are to proceed 
cautiously, that we may proceed safely, giving our undi- 
vided means and labor to a single work of approved utility, 
until it is done and well done. The Eastern and Western 
waters are to be united, and to the accomplishment of this 
every minor interest is made subservient. The large rivers 
are to be connected Avith each other and with the sea, by a 
grand transverse canal, as nearly central as practicable, 
from which the lateral ones are to flow, as the legislative 
authority shall from time to time decree. Railways and 
roads are subjects of your jurisdiction, and within the scope 
of your powers either to construct or to improve them — 
and, for these, funds are at your disposal — corporate powers 
given to you — and the geometric skill and engineering sci- 
ence of the country placed within your reach. Your first 
measures will be chiefly preparatory — to appoint the artists 
necessary to carry your orders into eftect — to cause to be 
made topographical examinations and surveys of the coun- 
try least explored — to direct the routes to be traced — the 
levels to be taken, and the estimates of expense, whether 
the communications be opened by roads or by canals, and 
to calculate the relative advantages in diff'erent positions of 
roads, canals or railways, will be among the first of them ; 
and to these objects, as limited by law, your measures will 
be confined for the present year." 

The Governor informed the Board of his intention to ap- 
point Hamilton Fulton principal Engineer ; and, after the 
adoption of necessary resolutions, appointment of commit- 
tees and the transaction of other business, the Board ad- 
journed to the fourth Monday in October. During the 



180 I-IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VIII. 

recess of the Board, William Terrell, of Sparta, and Alex- 
ander Telfair, of Savannah, were appointed in the room of 
Joel Crawford and John Elliott, respectively, who had re- 
signed. 

[1826.] The Board met, pursuant to adjournment, at 
Milledgeville, on the 23d of October, and, after a session of 
twelve days, adjourned, having first adopted an able report 
to the Legislature, drawn by Mr. Couper, accompanied by 
the report of the Chief Engineer. Our regret at not be- 
ing able to give the proceedings of the Board entire, is 
much diminished by having it in our power to furnish the 
following condensed, statement of its operations and the 
results, furnished the writer by Mr. Couper, in a letter dated 
St. Simon's Island, August 14, 1858 : 

"By the Act of the Legislature of 1825, establishing the 
Board of Public Works, Gov. Troup became, ex-officio, its 
President ; and he presided at most, if not all, of its meet- 
ings. He took an active and leading part in all of the 
proceedings, and the influence of his opinions was felt in 
the most important decisions of the Board. Upon the most 
vital question which arose, — and that which has shaped the 
course of the public improvements of Georgia, the co-op- 
eration of Gov. Troup decided the action of the Board, and 
subsequently that of the State. To illustrate this, I must go 
into some detail, and incur your suspicion of my egotism. 
I refer, however, to the printed proceedings of the Board, 
for the principal facts in support of my assertions. 

'' By the Act of the Legislature establishing the Board 
of Public Works, an extensive system of Canals was con- 
templated, extending, in the one direction, from the Ten- 
nessee river to the Atlantic, and, in the other, from the 
Flint to the Savannah river ; and the first duty enjoined on 
the Board was to make the requisite surveys for both. At 
the first session of the Board, two corps of Engineers were 
organized to make the surveys ; and they were employed, 
during the summer of 1826, on them. At the next session, 
in the autumn, reports were made by the Engineers to the 
Board, and it then devolved on the latter to present their 
report to the Legislature. At this stage I presented my 
views to the Board, in opposition to the system of canals, 
and in support of the substitution of rail roads in their 
place. 



€hap. VIII.] INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 181 

" A recent visit to England had demonstrated to my own 
mind, that, except for heavy transportation, rail roads were 
destined to supersede canals ; and I was most anxious that 
the State should not involve herself in a work of very 
great expense and of very doubtful advantage. The sub- 
ject being new, I found myself, at first, in a minority ; but, 
being ably supported by the concurrent opinion of the 
Chief Engineer, Mr. Fulton, and ultimately receiving the 
support of Gov. Tronp, I was authorized by the Board, in 
the Keport which I made to the Legislature, as Chairman 
of the committee, to recommend the abandonment, for the 
present, of the system of canals, and a trial, on a limited 
scale, of rail roads as a substitute. 

" The quarrel among the Engineers, and the enlistment 
of the two dominant parties in it, occasioned the dissolution 
of the Board, and the abandonment of the system of Inter- 
nal Improvement. This was fortunate, as the public mind 
was not then prepared for rail roads, and a perseverance in 
the construction of the grand system of canals would have 
cost the State from $10,000,000 to §15,000,000. 

" After a very earnest conversation with Gov. Troup, he 
at last said to me : ' Well, Mr. Couper, I will go with you 
in favor of rail roads ; but what power do you contem- 
plate V My reply was, ' locomotives, of course.' ' Good 
God,' said he, ' I cannot stand that ; I will go to the extent 
of horse-power.' This was in 182(5, when there were only 
22 miles of rail road in the whole world. What a contrast 
a third of a century has produced !" 

It should be mentioned that three days after the passing 
of the act creating the Board of Public Works, to wit, on 
the 24th December, 1825, the General Assembly passed an 
act " to lay out a central Canal or Railway through this 
State," the main purpose being stated in the act to be " the 
ultimate object of joining the waters of the Tennessee or 
Mississippi rivers " ; with canals to unite with the Central 
Canal, &c., and with liberty to the Board of Public Works 
to take into consideration the comparative advantage of 
railways over canals, &c., &c. Still, as has already been 
said, railroads were hardly in the contemplation of the 
authorities of Georgia at that time, as a part of the perma- 
nent internal improvement of the State. The gradual 



182 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VIII 

substitution of this system for canals, the awakening of 
public attention to its superiority, and the extension and 
perfection of that system, are subjects of curious consid- 
eration. That Governor Troup was one of the first to be 
convinced of this superiority, is shown by the letter of Mr. 
Couper. To these two gentlemen, perhaps, more than to 
any others of their compeers, belongs the credit of having 
saved the State from the ruinously expensive system of 
canalling, worthless anywhere in comparison Avitli rail- 
roads, and especially in a southern country. 

In his annual message of 1826, Governor Troup said : 
'• After a tedious correspondence with several of the 
most distinguished of the Engineers of the United States, 
from which no satisfactory result could be promised, 
Hamilton Fulton, Esq., a gentleman of known integrity of 
character, and recommended by the most eminent of the 
Engineers of England, was appointed to the office of Chief 
Civil Engineer. It is hoped that Mr. Fulton will not dis- 
appoint the just expectations of the public. The proceed- 
ings of the Board of Public Works, after their first 
organization, are submitted to you. A plan* of Internal 
Improvement having been digested and prescribed by the 
Legislature, nothing remained for them but to adoj)t the 
most prompt and appropriate measures to carry it into effect. 
The report of the Board and of the Chief Engineer will 
disclose the first practical operations under them, and will 
enable you to decide upon the merits of the past, and what 
for the future, in furtherance of the plan, the public inter- 
est shall recpiire. To open new sources of commerce, and 
give facilities to those already open, are the great objects 
of the system. If, by a communication between the waters 
of Tennessee and those of Georgia, the trade of the Missis- 
sippi and Ohio can be diverted to our Atlantic ports, the 
freight and commissions would more than suflice to replace, 
with the ordinary interest, the capital which might be em- 
ployed in effecting that communication ; and, if this were 
true at the beginning, the progressively increasing com- 
merce which an almost unbounded region, with rapidly 
augmenting population, would supply, might convert a 

* The act of 24tli December, 1825, already cited, contained this provision : " That the 
Board of Public Works shall not enter on any further plan or scheme for internal improve- 
ment, till the duties imposed by this act are fulfilled, unless they arc bo directed by the 
Legislature of this State."— Ed. 



Chap. VIII.] HIS MESSAGE. 183 

cliannel of intercourse into a permanent source of revenue 
to the State. Whatever can be realized in this respect, 
will depend on the facilities given by the projected canal 
across the Peninsula of Florida, which, forming a line of 
steamboat communication between the Western waters and 
our Atlantic ports, cheap, continuous and comparatively 
safe, may have advantages over the short and more direct 
route, not open to this valuable instrument of conveyance. 
As connected with such an undertaking, the States of Ala- 
bama and Tennessee have been consulted, and their views 
in relation to it, so far as communicated, are submitted. 
With respect to that part of public improvement designed 
to facilitate the intercourses of trade within our own limits, 
the obvious rule will be to adapt our measures not only to 
the actual state of the trade and commerce of the country, 
but to the means which we can command to give eflQcacy 
and success to them ; and whether canals, or rail roads, or 
turnpikes shall, in diflerent situations, be considered as 
best adapted to this end, to limit both capital and labor to 
a single object at a time, until that object is accomplished." 
Then follow these remarkable words : " It need not excite 
surprise^ {f, hefore a long time, with the exception of the 
level allumal country^ the Rail will itniversaUi/ supersede 
tlie Canal, having the advantage of cheapness, expedition, 
health fulness, safety and certainty.^'' 

On the 26th of December, 1826, the act creating the 
Board of Public Works, and that to lay out a Central 
Canal or Railway, were repealed. 

The following extracts from Governor Troup's message 
of 1827, contain his last official views and his parting advice 
on the subject of Internal Improvement: 

I invite your attention again to the subject of Internal 
Improvement, and to the dangers inseparable from a longer 
postponement of a judicious system adapted to the wants 
and resources of the State. It is mortifying to our pride, 
and it will prove ruinous to our interest, that every State in 
the Union and every State in Europe, advancing in the 
course of improvement, opening communications between 
the most distant parts of its territory, cheapening its trans- 
portation, augmenting its trade and commerce, and ce- 
menting the union of its people, give signs of increasing 
illumination, whilst Georgia, with some claims to intelli- 
gence and public spirit, has not yet executed a solitary 
work or raised a single monument in illustration of her de- 



184 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VIII. 

votion to the agricultural and commercial prosperity of her 
people. We must soon withdraw from the rivalry of trade, 
or share it on the most unequal terms. IS* o fertility of soil, no 
geniality of climate, can compensate to Georgia a difference 
of freight of five to one against her, in a competition with her 
neighbor States. Her industry will be paralvzed, and her 
capital exhausted. Already, the wheat-grower of the w^estern 
parts of New York, from which formerly a bushel of wheat 
was not exported, supplants the wheat-grower of Georgia in 
his own market ; and, ere long, the cotton market reduced to 
the lowest price at which the article can be raised, Georgia, 
with such fearful odds against her, will be forced to aban- 
don the cultivation. In this, as in all the articles of a 
bulky or weighty carriage, the cotton States will undersell 
her in the same proportion which their facilities of trans- 
portation bear to her difficulties ; and, when reduced to the 
ultimate point of stagnation and depression, she may awake 
from her repose with regrets and lamentations, but without 
the means or the resources to remedy the evil. You are 
not invited to premature or unprofitable efiorts. You are 
asked to keep pace with your sisters in the improvements 
which correspond to the actual state of the trade, wealth 
and population of the country; and, if nothing more, at least 
to make the high roads the avenues of a cheap and expe- 
ditious transportation at all times, and the navigable 
streams likewise in the degree and to the extent of which 
they are susceptible. The Repoi*t of the Chief Engineer, 
who has continued in the public service at my particular 
request, will show what, with very limited means, has been 
done or attempted, during the past season, and what it may 
be useful or profitable to do hereafter. It is not to be ex- 
pected that this or any other competent officer will devote 
himself to the service of the State, for a compensation 
scarcely sufficient for the maintenance of his family, when 
the same qualifications in other States find a double or 
triple allowance. It would be wiser to abolish the office.'^ 

It is unnecessary to pursue this subject further. Enough 
has been said to exhibit the views of Governor Troup on 
this subject ; and although subsequent events showed, and 
the sentiment of the country is now in favor of, the pro- 
priety of entrusting works of internal improvement to 
private enterprise, yet, in looking back to the history of 

* The offloo was afterwards abolished, under a joint resolution passed in 1828.— Ed. 



Chap. VIII.] LETTER ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 185 

siicli works, whether public or private, it must be admitted 
that the course of Governor Troup on the subject had no little 
influence, at the time, in rousing public attention to the 
great system of works which have conduced to place Georgia 
amongst the foremost States of the Union, and that the in- 
fluence of his example has been felt for good to the present 
time. 

In addition to what has been said on the subject of in- 
ternal improvement, it is proper to present to the reader 
the following letter from Gov. Troup to a committee of 
gentlemen at St. Mary's : 

Executive Department, Geo., [ 
21iUedg&mUe, '2Qth July.im^. \ 

Gentlemen : — I have received your resolutions and me- 
morial. On the subject of Internal Improvement they speak 
my own sentiments. 

Every argument will be urged upon the Legislature, and 
of course will not be urged in vain, to do its duty in this 
respect. Until they decide, your wishes can in no respect 
be gratified, l^o power is reposed here to gratify tl 



lem. 



You ask the appointment, jcro tempore, of a special En- 
gineer to make the surveys and estimates of the works 
which will be necessary to accomplish the connection be- 
tween the waters of the St. Mary's and Suwanee — no such 
power is lodged with the Executive. It is due to your very 
respectful and respectable memorial, to make known to you 
what the Executive has deemed it his duty to do in this 
respect. 

The resolution of the Legislature which authorized the 
Governor to appoint an Engineer, has been unavailing for 
that purpose, as might have been easily foreseen. A salary 
which it authorized, of $3,000, could not be supposed to 
command adequate qualifications, when such qualifications 
were compensated by other States at the rate of from 5 to 
10,000. All the efforts, therefore, made in past time by my 
predecessor, failed of efiect. They have not been renewed 
by me, on the same ground, because on the same ground 
they would have been equally unavailing. But, trusting 
and believing that the Legislature would, upon their first 
meeting, place this business on the only basis upon which 
it should rest, I have been unremittingly engaged in ern- 
ploying all the means left me to procure a competent Civil 
Engineer for the great objects of Internal Improvement in 
24 



186 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VIII. 

the State of Georgia. Ko man is worth employing who is 
not, scientifically and j^ractically, an Engineer of the first 
order. No mistakes or errors must be committed in the 
outset, as, in the state of public opinion, they would have 
the effect of devolving on posterity what it is both our in- 
terest and our duty to undertake ourselves. 

A Civil Engineer of these qualifications is in a fair way 
of being engaged conditionally, but conditionally only. If 
the Legislature should adopt my recommendations, he will 
be employed, and under the most favorable auspices for the 
permanent benefit and advantage of the State. 

With respect to the subject to which you have more es- 
pecially invited my attention, 1 have only to say, that on 
the very first opening which presented itself of executing 
the resolution by means which did not depend upon our- 
selves, I availed myself of it by addressing a letter to the 
President himself, requesting that, under the late act of 
Congress, competent Civil Engineers should be dispatched 
to Georgia to attend to her interests under that act, and 
more particularly invited his attention to the survey, plans, 
estimates, &c., of the grounds and works for connecting the 
St. Mary's with the Suwanee. To this communication, 
though made many Aveeks ago, no answer has been re- 
ceived." When received, whatever may be the purport, 
it will be made known to you through the public prints. 
Very respectfully, gentlemen. 

Your ob't serv't, 
Messrs. Belton A. Copp and G. M. Teoup. 

Bachlott, Committee, St. Mary's. 

* Just received and will be published in the next papers. 
— G. M. T. 

The correspondence with the President, to which refer- 
ence is above made, is here inserted in full. It will be 
found referred to in the Governor's annual message of 
1824 ; and it will be seen that the Governor's application 
did not at all commit him to an admission of the power of 
Congress to legislate in cases not falling within the letter of 
the Constitution. 

Executive Depaktment, Geo., 
Milledr/eville, ^Qtk June, 1824. 

Sir : — The Congress having thought proper to pass the 
act of the 30th April, which authorizes the President to 



Chap. VIII.] OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 187 

procure the necessary surveys, plans and estimates for roads 
and canals, and feeling it to be my duty to ask for Georgia 
a proportionate share of the benelits or advantages which 
may result to the Union from such a measure, I beg leave 
to call your attention to the importance of connecting the 
waters of the Savannah with those of the Tennessee river — 
the waters of the St. Mary's with those of the Suwanee in 
East Florida, and of directing to be made any other sur- 
veys, plans and estimates in which Georgia may take an in- 
terest, and which the President may think proper to order 
under the act of Congress. 

With great consideration and respect, 

G. M. Tkoup. 
The President of the United States, 

Washington City. 

Depaktiment or Wak, July 16th, 1824. 
Sir : — The President of the United States has transmitted 
your letter, of the 20th ult., to this department, with in- 
structions to inform you that in carrying into effect the act 
of Congress, of the 30th A]3ril last, directing surveys to be 
made for the purpose of constructing roads and canals, 
the interest of all the great sections of the country will be 
duly attended to, comprehending those of the Southern 
States, and, in connection with their interests, as well as 
that of the nation, he has determined at an early period to 
direct a survey for a national road from the seat of govern- 
ment to New Orleans. 

In relation to the objects to which you call his attention, 
as being particularly connected M'ith the interest of the 
State of Georgia, he deems them to be important and 
worthy of the attention of the nation ; but it will be impos- 
sible, under the general arrangements which have been 
made to carry into effect the act above referred to, to bestow 
immediate attention on them. 

I have the honor to be, sir, with great respect. 
Your obedient servant, 

J. C. Calhoun. 
His Excellency G. M. Troup, Governor of the 
State of Georgia, Milledgeville. 

The reader will find the Act of Congress, to which re- 
ference is made in the preceding correspondence, in the 
U. S. Statutes at large, vol. 4, pages 22 and 23, entitled " An 
Act to procure the necessary surveys, plans and estimates 



188 I^IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VIII. 

upon the subject of roads and canals" ; and, on pages 139 
and 140, of the same volume, another act, entitled "An 
Act for the survey of a route for a canal between the At- 
lantic and the Gulf of Mexico." It needs scarcely be 
added that nothing practical ever resulted from these acts, 
at least so far as concerned the development of the re- 
sources of Georgia, 

Having thus referred to Governor Troup's connection 
with Internal Improvement, it is proper here to notice an- 
other subject which has always divided the public mind (if 
Georgia as to its advantages and evils — we mean the Land 
Lottery system — one to which Governor Troup publicly 
and officially gave the sanction of his name in 1S25. For 
his views thus announced, we must refer the reader to his 
message at the extra session of the Legislature in that year. 
The first act passed by the General Assembly for disposing 
of the public lands, was approved by Governor Milledge 
on the 11th day of May, 1803, and was entitled " An Act 
to make distribution of the late cession of Lands^ obtained 
from the Creek Nation hy the United States Commissioners, 
in a Treaty entered into at or near Fort Wilkinson, on the 
sixteenth day of June, eighteen hundred and twoP Gov. 
Troup was then a member of the Legislature ; but whether 
he voted, or how he voted, we have now' no means of 
knowing. That he was opposed to a distribution of the 
public lands without important reservations for the great 
interests of public education, internal improvement, &c., 
may be seen b_y the message to which reference has just 
been made. The whole subject was one of delicacy ; and 
whilst the opponents of the system were neither few nor 
wanting in intelligence, yet they were most decidedly a 
minority of the people. Governor Troup's approval of the 
Lottery act of 1825, is no evidence, however, that the de- 
tails of the bill were in consonance with his own opinions. 
The probability is he would have made larger reservations 
for public purposes. Still, he deferred, on this as on other 
occasions, to the will of the people as expressed through 



Chap. YIII.] THE LAND LOTTERY SYSTEM. 189 

their representatives. "Tlie lands," said he, ''belong to 
them in joint and several property, and none but them- 
selves or their immediate representatives can rightfully 
dispose of them." 

But, independently of other considerations, there were 
grave political reasons why Georgia should come into full 
possession of the territory acquired from the Creeks in 
1825. These reasons will appear in the sequel ; and it may 
suffice here to say that the time seemed fully to have come 
when all hope of remaining longer within the constitutional 
boundaries of the State, against the spirit of the articles of 
cession of 1802, should be taken from savages, whose resi- 
dence in Georgia was not only of no benefit to either the 
white man or the red, but Avas actually detrimental to the 
true interests of the former. A survey, and early settle- 
ment of the lands by lottery, seemed to give better prom- 
ise of this result than any other mode ; and, right or wroug, 
that system has been heartily approved by a large majority 
of the people of Georgia.''' 

As the biographer of Governor Troup, the writer con- 
fesses to a suspension, if not an entire change, of opinion, 
on the subject, since he undertook this work ; and he feels 
that he cannot do a better service to the public than by giv- 
ing the following views of the origin, policy and propriety 
of the land lottery system, from the pen of a gentleman f 
whose opportunities have been ample, and who seems to have 
given to the subject the most careful consideration : 

" The peace of 1783 found a population of some 35,000 
or 40,000 thinly spread over about one-third of our State as 

* Such was the popularity of tho Lottery system, that, out of fifty-three who voted in 
the Senate, at the extra session of 18l!5, only three voted against the hill ; and, in the House, 
only ten out of ninety. The Senators were James Bozeman, of Baldwin, John J. Maxwell , 
of Bryan, and John Whitehead, of Burke. The Representatives were William Law, Morde- 
cai Mj'ers and Robert W. Pooler, of Chatham, Joseph Quarterman and George W. Wal- 
thour, of Liberty, Belton A. Copp, of Camden, S. M. IngersoU, of Bibb, Simeon Oliver, of 
Elbert, I. H. Saffold, of Washington, and James Rcmbert, of Wilkes.— Ed. 

t Dr. W. C. Daniell— in a letter to the editor, dated 7th May, 1859. It is due to this 
gentleman to state, that, whilst he admits a change of opinion in regard to the Land Lot- 
tery, he speaks, in his note to the editor, of the foregoing contribution " as the best and 
only amende which I can now make to a profoundly wise policy, which I prejudged be- 
cause I did not comprehend it in its full bearings." — Ed. 



190 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VIII. 

now defined, with a western frontier running from tlie St. 
Mary's river to the Currahee mountain, some four hundred 
miles, and that frontier rendered insecure by the pres- 
ence of tribes of Indians, who could not be trusted as 
fjjiends nor subdued as enemies. The Federal Government 
was unable to supply the protection claimed, and Georgia 
was left to her own inadequate resources. Indian incur- 
sions were not infrequent, A law of the State, still on our 
statute books, requires that every man capable of bearing 
arms shall take them with him, with a specified amount of 
ammunition, when he shall attend public worship. Cannon 
were stationed at intervals, on a line parallel to the Oconee 
river, and near it, to give the alarm upon the appearance 
of the Indians in the settlements, so that families near these 
stations should seek refuge in the block-houses built for 
that purpose chiefly by individual enterprise. The farms 
were cultivated in succession, by their owners in a body, 
with their arms stacked at a convenient distance for alarms 
to be given by their vigilant and faithful dogs. Occasional 
forays were made by the Indians, to kill, scalp, burn and 
carry away. Then the men in the neighborhood would 
assemble, usually at a block-house as a central point — ap- 
point their oflicers and dash ofi' in hot pursuit. Sometimes 
they would overtake the retreating marauders — at times 
encumbered with prisoners and spoils — attack and usually 
disperse them, with more or less of mutual loss ; at other 
times, tbey would follow the trail to the Indian village, at- 
tack it, disperse the inhabitants, burn their wigwams, destroy 
the standing crops, and carry ofi* recovered prisoners and 
stock. 

" About 183T, in returning from a visit to the bereaved 
family of my deceased brother, who had died in the Petit 
Gulf Hills, Mississippi, I stopped to dinner at the house of 
a Mrs. Collins, in Emanuel or Bulloch county, who had 
been scalped in one of these Indian forays late in the last 
century. She was a tall, stately woman, upwards of eighty 
years old, and wore a handkerchief on her head to conceal 
the loss which she had sustained from the scalping-knife of 
an Indian warrior. 

"There. was no established peace between the frontier 
Georgians and Creek Indians, from the Revolutionary war 
until after the close of the war of 1812-15 between the 
United States and Great Britain, after which they were 
well whijDped and virtually destroyed or dispersed by the 
Hero of New Orleans. During the colonial government 
in Georgia, as in other British American provinces, the 



Chap. VIII.] THE LAND LOTTERY SYSTEM. 191 

great demand was for occupants for the boundless domain 
of forest land, and the latter was freely distributed to all 
who would occupy but a small portion of the large grants 
freely supplied to settlers at nominal prices. This policy 
necessarily scattered the population thinly over the terri- 
tory. Here, this condition was rendered still worse by 
the sale, at nominal prices, of a body of land acquired 
by the Crown, early in the Kevolution, from the Indians, 
and now embraced in the counties of Washington, Han- 
cock, Taliaferro, Greene, Oglethorpe, Clark and Jackson, 
east of the Oconee and Apalachee rivers, and to which we 
are indebted for the introduction of a word into our ex- 
pansive language. It was sold in large bodies, at nominal 
prices, soon after Peace, chiefly to wealthy emigrants from, 
and to land speculators in, Yirginia and North Carolina ; 
and, held by such men and in such bodies, how could it be 
rendered a barrier to the powerful and hostile tribes of 
Indians who fished and hunted on the western banks of 
these streams? Fauche's troop of one hundred mounted 
men, raised to guard the four hundred miles of frontier, 
even with all his energy and tact, and all their industry and 
endurance, could supply but a very inadequate protection. 
The Federal Government was in its swaddling clothes, and 
did little or nothing in reply to appeals for protection 
against the Indians, which went up to distress and harass 
the great and good Washington almost daily from the 
frontier settlements extending from Florida to Canada. 

" Georgia, the youngest of the thirteen colonies recently 
admitted to their Independence, possessed of a large terri- 
tory occupied by a small and sparse population by no 
means homogeneous, was left to her own resources to pro- 
vide that protection to herself which tho Federal Govern- 
ment was unable to furnish. How was that necessity to be 
supplied ? Near twenty weary years of occasional conflicts 
and continual insecurity had failed to build up a barrier 
population on the boundary rivers, when the settlement of 
the Yazoo controversy by the treaty of 1802, which divested 
Georgia of the territory now composing the States of Ala- 
bama and Mississippi, supplied the means of acquiring the 
Indian land west of the Oconee and east of the Ocmulgee 
rivers ; and the distribution of that land in small parcels or 
tracts, by Lottery, was determined on as the best mode of 
establishing a barrier population against the aggressive 
Indians. 

" It has never been denied that the purpose sought in the 
Lottery was fully and promptly accomplished ; but it has 



192 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. VIII. 

been contended that the land should have been sold, and 
the money received applied to Education, Internal Improve- 
ments, &c., &c. It has long been affirmed, and is, I be- 
lieve, almost annually repeated, that the Land system of 
the United States does not pay. With us, even after the 
gift of the land in lots, the sale of the fractions, (the small 
portions cut off in the surveys by straight lines,) yielded a 
fund which has been in part wasted in various schemes of 
opening rivers, &c., and in part applied to the uses of the 
University, county academies and poor schools ; with how 
much success, I leave to those to say who have administered 
these bounties or partaken of the benefits of the provision. 
One thing is certain : small as was the proportion of the 
land sold, to the whole, the purchasers of the fractions were 
enabled to obtain of the Legislature indulgences on their 
notes given in payment, from time to time, until this action 
became annual and chronic ; and the applications ceased 
because the debtors were deceased and their estates dis- 
tributed, or had been hurried Westward by the spirit of 
enterprise so characteristic of us. In 1833, I saw amongst 
the assets of the Central Bank — then virtually the State 
Treasury — notes of various denominations, dated in the 
early days of this century, and held as part of the proceeds 
of the fractional sales — where, doubtless, your eminent 
Collector of Autographs could add even to his collection. 
If we admit that all the money applied to the improvement 
of our rivers, has been as successful as wise men anticipated, 
and that devoted to Education has accomplished all that 
the ambitious promised and the good expected, we must 
still believe that if all the land had been sold, it would 
have yielded less money than the sales of the fractions 
have brought into the Treasury, and that here, at least, 
part has been greater than the whole. If the purchasers 
of one or five per cent, of the land, controlled the Legisla- 
ture to the extent of a virtual remission of ten or fifty per 
cent, of the purchase money, how much would the State 
have received, had she sold all the land ? And then she 
would not have established on the east bank of the Ocmul- 
gee that barrier of stout hearts and strong arms — the 
necessity of that day in Georgia. That was no Whitefield 
enterprise to build an Orphan House before the children 
were begotten or their parents had mated, but a self-reared 
protection to a recent and sparse population — to save feeble 
woman and helpless infancy from the scalping-knife and 
the firebrand of a border savage enemy. That was achieved ; 
and how can we measure that by money, or weigh the lives 



Chap. VIII.] LAND LOTTERY. I93 

of the previous generation from whose loins we have sprung, 
in the balance with any measures involving merely ameli- 
orations of our condition, whether real or imaginary ? 

" May we not indeed say that our Land system has been 
wiser than that of the United States, which, thus far at 
least, has been a tax upon the Treasury, whilst ours has paid 
something above and beyond the protection which it gave 
to our frontier ? 

" You will see that I have spoken of our Land Lottery 
policy as a system originating, as I think, in a clear and 
wise view of our condition, when it was introduced. Of 
the abuses to which it is said to have given rise, I need not 
speak. They aft'ect not the principle. How often is it that 
what was at first a pure and simple good, becomes the 
nucleus around which errors and abuses gather — parasites 
that exhaust the vitality of the tree — 'Vermin that devour 
the life-blood of the animal ! " 

25 



194 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IX. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Beginning of Indian Difficulties. — Cherokee Controversy. — Fed- 
eral Relations. — Slavery Agitation l>y Ohio Legislature. — 
Gov. Tronjj's first Annual Message. — Election of Governor 
given to the People. — Commissioners appointed to treat with 
the Creeks. — Governor requested to receive La Fayette, &c.y &c. 

In this and succeeding chapters, we are to consider that 
portion of the life of Gov. Troup which is admitted to have 
been the most interesting in his history, not only because 
of the conspicuous part which he acted in the important 
events of that time, but because of the events themselves; 
and however some may affect to sneer at what they pretend 
to consider a small matter — one which, as is further pre- 
tended, might have been consummated under the direc- 
tion of some other and less sagacious and determined 
statesman — yet, it will be found, on investigating the origin 
and results of the Indian, and especially the Creek, contro- 
versy, that great moral and political truths underlay the 
whole, and that the development and practical application 
of them were owing more to Gov. Troup than to any other 
man of his day. IN'o history of this period could be com- 
plete without the most frequent reference to him ; and his 
biography for that period is a history of Georgia for the 
same time. Fortunately, this history is enveloj)ed in no 
doubt ; the evidence speaks for itself; and, like all history 
depending upon documentary evidence for its elucidation, 
the chronicler is relieved from vague and empty specula- 
tion ; and, instead of mere surmising, he has only to quote 
the well authenticated records of the day as the best vin- 
dication of the truth of his story. 

Reference has already been made to the cession by 
Georgia, in 1802, to the United States, of all that portion 
of her western territory lying west of her present western 



Chap. IX.] CESSION OF 1802. 195 

boundary, and east of the Mississippi river— an immense 
tract of valuable land, embracing almost tlie entire extent 
of the present States of Alabama and Mississippi. Tlie 
land, thus ceded, amounted to about fift}^ millions of acres, 
and the consideration to be paid to Georgia was the sum of 
one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The 
fourth article of the act of " agreement and cession " was 
in the following words : 

" That the United States shall, at their own expense, ex- 
tinguish, for the use of Georgia, as early as the same can 
hepeacenUy obtained on reasonable terms, the Indian title 
to the coauty of Tallassee, to the lands left out by the line 
drawn by the Creeks in the year one thousand seven hun- 
dred and ninety-eight, which had been previously granted 
by the State of Georgia ; both which tracts had formerly 
been yielded by thelndians; and to the lands within the 
forks of the Oconee and Ocmulgee rivers ; for which sev- 
eral objects the President of the'United States has directed 
that a treaty shall be immediately held with the Creeks, 
and that the United States shall, in the same manner, ex- 
tinguish the Indian title to all tlie other lands within the 
State of Georgia.'''' 

It would be going beyond tlie design of this work, and 
lead to undue prolixity, to give a history of the measures 
by which Georgia, at various times between the act of 
cession and the beginning of Gov. Troup's administration, 
came into possession of lands in the occupancy of the Indians 
at the time the cession was made, to wit, 24th April, 1802 ;"^ 
or to enumerate the various excuses made for tlie delays in 
extinguishing the Indian title to all the lands within the 
boundaries of the State as laid down in the articles of 
cession and defined in the constitution of Georgia ; or to 
specify the various appeals which, in the mean time, were 
made, to induce the General Government to do an act not 
only of simple justice but of plighted faith. We cannot, 
however, omit a special reference to " the memorial, re- 
monstrance and protest " of the Legislature, to the Presi- 

* The cession was ratified by the Legislature of Georgia on tlio 16th of June, 1S02.— Ed. 



196 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. • [Chap. IX. 

dent of the United States, approved by tlie Governor, Gen. 
Clark, on the 22d December, 1819, from which we make 
the following extract : 

"Yonr memorialists are impelled, by a sense of duty 
which they owe themselves and the people of Georgia, 
again to call the attention of yonr excellency to a subject 
in which they consider their best and most permanent in- 
terests involved. It has been the unfortunate lot of our 
State to be embroiled in the question of ' territorial right,' 
almost from the commencement of her existence. The 
feelings excited by such warmth and succession of contest, 
have been heightened and aggravated by inconA^eniences 
and exposures incident to our frontier situation. To alle- 
viate this condition, to circumscribe our extent of settle- 
ment and become more defensible ; and finally, to settle 
the questions of territory^ limits and boundaries, were the 
prevailing inducements to the vast relinquishment made 
by Georgia to the United States, in the articles of agree- 
ment and cession of 1802. Abstractedly from these in- 
ducements, it will not be contended that other considerations 
could have produced the efltect. The period has now arrived, 
when, in the opinion of your memorialists, the subject is no 
longer to be regulated by the rules of policy and conve- 
nience, but has assumed the more definite and substantial 
shape of positive right. It has long been the desire of 
Georgia, that her settlements should be extended to her 
ultimate limits ; that the soil Vv^ithin her boundaries should 
be subjected to her control, and that her police, organiza- 
tion and government should be fixed and permanent. Tor 
the fulfilment of these desires, we have waited the tide of 
events, and observed the march of time for seventeen years. 
Within this period, we have witnessed with much gratifi- 
cation the spread of the Union, and the accession of States 
and Territories greater in extent than the original confed- 
eration. Two of the members of this vast family are the 
descendants of Georgia ; yet, Georgia loses her strength 
and influence as a member of the Eepublic, retarded, as 
she is, in her growth and population, and denied the foster- 
ing aid of her common parent.'' 

After eloquently narrating some of Georgia's grievances 
in the premises, the remonstrance added : 

"Your memorialists respectfully solicit, that Commis- 
sioners acting under the authority of the United States, 
may treat with the Creek and Cherokee nations of Indians, 
for further cessions of territory for the use of Georgia." 



Chap. IX.] SPECIAL MESSzVGE. I97 

On the 8tli of Janiiaiy, 1821, a treaty'''' was concliuled at 
Indian Spring, with the Creek Indians, by which a consid- 
erable cession of land was made to Georgia, and of which 
land the (original) connties of Dooly, Iloustonn, Monroe, 
Fayette and Henry were laid off by act of the Legislature 
passed 15th May, 1821. The Creeks and Cherokees, how- 
ever, still remained in possession of a large portion of the 
best territory of Georgia. 

In this ])osture Governor Troup found affairs when he 
assumed the duties of the executive government in 1823. 
In December, of that year, he sent the following message to 
the Legislature : 

Executive Department, Georgia, ) 
MUledgemlle, 15th Dec, 1823. ,j 

The repeated remonstrances to the general government, 
urging the extinguishment of Indian claims to lands within 
our territorial limits, have only resulted in partial conces- 
sions of territory. Notwithstanding the pledged faith of 
the general government in the articles of agreement and 
cession, frequent occasions have been omitted to fulhl her 
obligations to Georgia. It is mortifying enough to advert 
to the single one of 1814,1 when, disregarding positive 

* For this treaty, see IT. S. Statutes at Large, vol. 7, pages 215, 216.— Ed. 

t The occasion to which reference is here made, is CTidently the treaty at Fort 
Jackson, dated 9th August, 181-4, by which not only was a large cession of land, now 
lying within the State of Alabama, made to the United States, as "an equivalent for all 
expenses incurred in prosecuting" a war against the Creeks, whilst what was then con- 
sidered a comparatively worthless portion was acquired for Georgia, but in the second 
article of which the United States agreed to "guarantee to the Creek nation, the integrity 
of all their territory eastwardly and northwardly of" a certain line. It was in reference 
to this treaty, that Mr. Bevan, in his report to the Governor, in 182.5, said : " it is well Icnoivn, 
THAT at Fort Jackson presented to the General Government a favorable opportunity for a 
full compliance with all the stipulations of its agreement with Georgia; but the United 
States (although bound to us,) owed money to others, which consideration, blending itself 
with other views of policy or expediency, (synonymous terms.) induced them to extinguish 
the Indian title to a very great quantity of rich land in Alabama, while Oporgia was told 
that she must be content with a portion of pine-barren territory," &c., &c. 

For the Resolution, Memorial and Remonstrance of the Legislature of Georgia, against 
this treaty, in 1816, the reader is referred to Lamar's Digest, pp. IIGS, 1169, 1170 and 1171. 
In the memorial and remonstrance, the Legislature said : " No crisis ever presented such 
prospects of an advantageous extinguishment of Indian title, as the period of the treaty 
referred to. A severe chastisement had been inflicted on the Creeks; their power was 
broken— their arrogance subdued; and it only became necessary, under these circum- 
stances, to have demanded and obtained an accession to such terms as the United States, 
looking to their compact with Georgia, might have thought proper to have dictated."— ,Ed, 



198 LIFE or GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IX. 

obligations to Georgia, as stipulated by compact, tlie United 
States suffered a large extent of Indian country to pass into 
the hands of others to whom she was not bound by en- 
gagements of any k^nd. The same treaty ought to have 
extinguished for Georgia the Indian claims to all the lands 
within her limits — nhe was not noticed in it. In every 
subsequent negotiation with the Indians, it would have been 
as easy to have acquired the whole, as part of the territory. 
The failure is to be sought in the parsimonious appropria- 
tions of money on the part of the United States, and the 
consequent limited instructions to her agents. A wise 
eco "omy would have dictated the application of abundant 
mear-s under favorable auspices, to do at once what she 
knew sooner or later she would be obliged to do. From 
the moment the general government entertained a belief 
that Geo gia would be satisfied with small appropriations 
of money for the acquisition of small portions of lands, 
things have been growing worse and worse. The general 
government itself is daily multiplying obstacles (innocent- 
ly, to be sure,) to the further acquisition, and its practice is 
so far variant from its theory, which teaches that a concen- 
tration of the tribes is one of the most effectual modes of 
advancing their civilization. Georgia has given to the 
United States 50,000,000 of acres for 1,250,000 dollars. 
The United States have gratuitously given to the Yazoo 
claimants between four and five millions dollars besides ; 
and when you have added to this the paltry sums she has 
paid in extinguishment of Indian title within our limits, 
you will find a net balance in her favor to the amount of 
twenty millions of dollars at least. The words, " as soon as 
may be," in the articles of agreement and cession, will no 
longer avail the United States any thing ; the operation of 
these has been long since estopped by time. It was never 
in contemplation of either of the parties to that agreement, 
that twenty years should elapse, and that Georgia should 
find herself in possession of only one half of her reserved 
territory. Indeed, further procrastination, as inconsistent 
as it is with justice to Georgia, can subserve no useful pur- 
poses to the United States, or to the Indians themselves. 
The latter have discernment enough to perceive that, soon, 
very soon, Georgia must have what is her own. The 
United States recognize in practice, and in theory, the 
allodiality to be in Georgia, the temporary usufruct only in 
the Indians. Of wdiat value is this right of use within our 
limits, in the present exhausted state of the game ? If the 
passion of the hunter is to be gratified, send him across the 



CHAr. IX.] GEORGIA MEMORIAL. 199 

Mississippi ; if tlie mind is to be improved into civilization, 
limit him to the pnrsuits of agriculture. Blending justice 
with authority, the United States have but to command, and 
the claims of Georgia will be satisfied. The treaty lately 
held with the Seminoles is in illustration. The United 
States had little else to do than to prescribe the limits Avith- 
in which those tribes were to retire. 

I recommend to you, therefore, to address yourselves, 
once more, and for the last time, to the justice of the United 
States, in language firm but respectful ; to demand and 
insist on, 1st, A liberal appropriation of money to extinguish 
the Indian claims to all the lands within our territorial 
limits — 2dly, Commanding instructions to her agents, who- 
ever they may be, that what of right ought to be done, 
shall be done. 

G. M. Teoup. 

The message having been referred, in the Senate, to the 
joint committee on the State of the Republic, they made a 
report," on the ISth December, which finally passed both 
Houses, and was approved by the Governor on the 20th. 
From the report we make the following extracts : 

The Committee on the State of the Republic, to whom 
was referred the communication of his Excellency the 
Governor, on the subject of the extinguishment of Indian 
claims to the lands within the territorial limits of Georgia, 
beg leave to report : 

That they have derived much gratification from the peru- 
sal of this interesting document. It presents to them an 
unequivocal manifestation of the disposition of the Execu- 
tive to sustain the just rights of the State on the important 
subject of the extension of jurisdictional limits, with a 
firmness which is tempered by discretion, and a zeal which 
is guided by intelligence — a disposition, to which, in the 
unanimous opinion of this committee, every suggestion of 
duty, and every feeling of honorable pride, on the part of 
this Legislature, will be accordant and responsive. The 
committee do not deem it necessary, in this report, to enter 
into aminnte examination of the luminous exposition of the 
rights of this State, which is contained in the communica- 
tion of his Excellency the Governor. Adopting it as unan- 
imously as they do, and in its whole extent, they believe 

* This report, although not presented by Judge Berrien, who was second on the commit- 
tee, yet bears unmistakable marks of his pen. It deserves to bo inserted at length; but 
want of space forbids. — Ed. 



200 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IX. 

they will best perform the duty which is assigned to 
them, by recommending that an address be presented to 
the President of the United States, based on the principles 
and fortified by the argnments of this commnnication. 

Then follows an eloquent address to the President, the 
conclusion of which is as follows : 

These memorialists have seen with what facility, the 
United States, " blending justice with authority," have been 
enabled to prescribe to the native tribes inhabiting the con- 
tiguous Territory of Florida, the limits of their range, and 
they do not doubt that a similar exercise of a legitimate 
authority, equally tempered by justice, will suffice to obtain 
for Georgia all which she desires. They ask, therefore, from 
the government of the Union, certainly with the respect 
which they have always felt, and which they have omitted 
no proper occasion to manifest, to the government of their 
choice and of their confidence, but at the same time with 
the earnestness which is authorized by the justice of their 
claim, and demanded by the necessities of their constitu- 
ents, that a liberal appropriation may be made for the ex- 
tinguishment of the Indian title to all the remaining lands 
within the limits of Georgia, and that commissioners may 
be appointed, with instructions in every event to eflt'ect this 
indispensable object, by a proper representation to the In- 
dian tribes of the just claims of Georgia — of the solemn 
obligation of the United States — and of the improvement 
in their own condition, which will result from their acqui- 
escence. 

The report was agreed to, xtnaninnoushj ^ in the Senate, 
and probably in the House also, although the journal of the 
latter body simply shows that it was passed without divi- 
sion. 

Daring the same session, the Governor approved joint 
resolutions embodying a memorial and remonstrance of the 
Legislature to the President of the United States, "relative 
to the claims of the citizens of Georgia, under the treaty 
made at the Indian Springs on the eighth of January, 
eighteen hundred and twenty-one," drawn by Judge Ber- 
rien, and to which reference is made in the Governor's 
annual message of 1824:. 

Appended to the report already noticed as having been 



Chap. XL] LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY OF WAR. 201 

approved by the Governor on 20tli December, was a reso- 
lution, " that a copy of the foregoing memorial and remon- 
strance be forwarded to the Senators and Representatives 
of the State of Georgia in the Congress of the United 
States, and that they be requested to use their exertions for 
the attainment of its object." The Governor accordingly . 
communicated the proceedings of the Legislature to the 
Georgia delegation in Congress, and the same were imme- 
diately thereafter made known to the government at Wash- 
ington. On the 17th of February, 1824, the Secretary of 
War addressed the following note to Gov. Troup : 

Department or War, 17th February, 1824. 
Sir: — I am directed by the President of the United States 
to enclose for your information, copies of a communication 
from the Cherokee delegation, now at this place, the answer 
of this department to their communication, and the reply, 
by which you will perceive that the nation is very adverse 
to making any additional cessions of land to the United 
States. I avail myself of the opportunity, to assure you 
that it will afford the President much pleasure to adopt any 
measure, in his power, which may tend to the fulfilment of 
the convention with the State of Georgia, with the least 
possible delay. With this view, he would be gratified to 
receive the aid of your opinion on a subject so interesting 
to the State over which you preside. 
I have the honor to be 

Your most obedient servant, 

J. C. Calhoun. 

Accompanying this letter was one to the President, dated 
January 19th, 1821:, signed by John Ross, Geo. Lowrey, 
Major Ridge and Elijah Hicks, calling themselves '' the 
delegation of the Cherokee nation," and in which, amongst 
other things, they say, "the Cherokee nation have now 
come to a decisive and unalterable conclusion not to cede 
away any more lands." In his answer to them, the Sec- 
retary, after stating, " you must be sensible that it will be 
impossible for you to remain, for any length of time, in 
your present situation, as a distinct society, or nation, within 
the limits of Georgia, or of any other State," &c., &c., 
added, " it remains for the Cherokee nation to decide for 
26 



202 I^IFE OF GEORGE M. TROtP. [Chap. IS. 

itself, wlietlier it will contribute most to their own welfare 
and happiness for them to retain their present title to their 
lands, and remain where they are, exposed to the discontent 
of Georgia and the pressure of her citizens, or to cede it to 
the United States for Georgia, at a fair price to be paid, 
either in other lands beyond the Mississippi, or in money to 
be vested in lands to be purchased for them, as individuals, 
within that or any other State. Should the nation decide 
to relinquish its present title, and to adopt either of the al- 
ternatives suggested, this government is disposed to act 
generously with them," &c., &c. In their reply, "the dele- 
gation of the Cherokee nation," amongst other things, said, 
" we beg leave to say to the President, through you, the 
Cherokee nation are sensible that the United States are 
bound, by its compact with Georgia, to extinguish, for the 
use of that State, the Indian title to lands within the limits 
claimed by the State, as soon as it can be done ^^mceaJZy 
and on reasoiiaUe conditions; and are also sensible that 
this compact is no more than a conditional one, and, with- 
out the free and voluntary consent of the Cherokee nation, 
can never be complied with on the part of the United 
States ; and having been duly authorized to make known 
to the government of the United States the true sentiments 
and disposition of the nation on this subject, the President 
has been informed that ' the Cherokees have come to a 
decisive and tmalterahle conclusion never to cede aioay any 
more lands. And as the extinguishment of Cherokee title 
to lands can never l)e obtained on conditions which will 
accord with the import of the compact between the United 
States and Georgia, it is desirable that the government 
should adopt some other means to satisfy Georgia, than to 
remain any longer under anticipation of being enabled to 
accomplish the object of purchasing the Cherokee title." 
The reply further suggested that the limits of Georgia, if 
too small, might be increased by an addition from the 
Floridas, and that the Cherokee nation might one day 
" enter into a treaty with the United States, for admission 
as citizens under the form of a Territorial or State govern- 



Chap. IX.] EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATION. 203 

ment ! " — altlioiigli they admitted that " the situation of the 
nation is not sufficiently improved in the arts of civilized 
life to warrant any change at present." •'' 

The Senators from Georgia, at that time, were John 
Elliott and Nicholas Ware ; the Eepresentatives were Joel 
Abbott, George Gary, Thomas W. Cobb, Alfred Cuthbert, 
John Forsyth, Edward F. Tattnall and Wiley Thompson ; 
Col. Tattnall was sick and absent. In their letter to the 
Governor, after referring to an interview which two of their 
number had had with the President, and to the " corres- 
pondence which had been held between the Secretary of 
War and certain Cherokee Chiefs," they added, " we shall 
not attempt to describe our surprise at the novel character 
of this correspondence." In conclusion, they said, "should 
the President address a message to Congress on the subject, 
our course will be a plain one. If he should not, it does 
not aj^pear to us proper to do more than we have done, as a 
correspondence has been opened between your Excellency 
and the Secretary of War, at the request of that officer, no 
doubt acting imder the direction of the President." 

The aid of Gov. Troiqfs opinion having been invoked 
by the letter of the Secretary of War, he promptly ad- 
dressed to that officer the following communication : 

Executive Department, Geo., ) 

Ifilledgeville, 2Sth February, 1821. ) 

Sir : — I have received this day your letter of the ITth 
instant. Be pleased to present to the President my ac- 
knowledgments for the attention which he has given to the 
requisition of Georgia, and especially for the manifestation 
of his sincere desire to adopt any measure in his power 
which may tend to the fulfilment of the convention with 
the State of Georgia, with the least possible delay. 

In compliance with his wishes, I hasten to lay before him 
my views and expectations, as connected with this fuffil- ^ 
ment. In your effort to open a negotiation with the Che- 
rokee delegation, for extinguishment of claims, you are 
met by a flat negative to two fair and liberal propositions : 

* It was strongly suspected, at the time, that the Indians were influenced to this course of 
conduct by designing white men. The history of their race shows conclusively that they can- 
not endure too close proximity with a superior race. Gov. Troup lived to witness the peaceable 
removal of the " Cherokee nation'' beyond the Mississippi.— Ed. 



204: LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap, IX. 

the first, to purchase for valuable consideration in money ; 
the second, to accommodate them with equivalent territory 
in a favorable situation beyond the Mississippi. Unreason- 
able as the answer has been, my mind was fully prepared 
for such an one. It had been made known to me, some time 
before, that a council had been formed in the nation, for the 
special purpose of coming to the resolution that the State 
of Georgia should never acquire, for any consideration, 
another acre of Cherokee land, either through the agency 
of the United States or otherwise ; and, in conformity with 
this resolution, all the measures were preconcerted to en- 
able the Chiefs to present themselves before the President, 
with a boldness bordering on eifrontery, and to receive his 
first advance to negotiation with the emphatic no ! a word 
easily pronounced, but in this instance most unadvisedly: 
not the spontaneous offspring of Indian feeling and senti- 
ment, but a word put into his mouth by white men, who are 
nourished and protected by the power of the United States ; 
who have no common interest or sympathies with those 
whom they instigate to use it ; and who, fixed upon the soil 
almost without mete or bounds, regard it as a goodly 
heritage for their descendants, which no power can limit or 
take away. 

From the day of the signature of the articles of agree- 
ment and cession, this word ceased to be available to the 
Indians, for any permanent interest of their own. From 
that day, the power of protestation which they have so re- 
centl}'' interposed, departed from them, and could never be 
used but for a little delay, or for a better bargain. On that 
day the fee simple passed from the rightful proprietors to 
Georgia, and Georgia, after a lapse of twenty years, de- 
mands nothing of the competent authority but the amotion 
of the tenants in possession. The answer is not only no ! 
but never. And is this a fit and proper one to be given to 
the demand of the people of Georgia, who have endured 
so long and so patientl}^ ? who have parted with an empire 
for a song? who have waited to see the United States reim- 
bursed all their expenses, and a net revenue flowing into 
their coffers from the land which was their birthright? a 
people who, having made a little reservation for them- 
selves by compact, are now told, in answer to their just and 
reasonable demand, that this compact is only conditional, 
depending for its fulfilment on the will and pleasure of the 
Indians ? that the primitive aboriginal rights are such now 
as they were before the discovery of the country, and that, 
if Georgia wants land, the United States have enough in 



Chap. IX.] EXECUTIVE C<OMMU^TICATIOK, 205 

Florida or elsewliere to give lier .? How is this insult aiid 
mockery to be repelled, proceediiija; us it does froir^'^' pol- 
luted lips of outcasts aud vagabond^;, who make '^^^ ^ "eO 
the instruments of reiterating it at ^V:q,s}iington ? -N'o, s" • ' 
this trick of vulgar cunning is only to, '-,e met 1^ *^6 fir-Jn- 
ness and dignity which become the Ui)^^__-ed Str^^ gover^" 
meut, which it has never failed to maniii^^O'. ^j^ every occ.^" 
sion calling for it, and which he, who is ti'^^^^pe'^J depos/" 
tary of airthese sacred qualities, has always, dis.i^'^yed to gt^ 
much advantage to his high office and to the cout.it7. Tf e' 
Indians must be made to understand that no talkL-^il] b^ 
listened to but such as proceed from councils strictly 'idiar- 
in character and composition ; that the compact witireo^^ 
gia is a very different instrument from that which has e^;^ 
represented to them ; that by it the word of the Unitb' 
States is passed, and that nothing can redeem it but the 
cession of all their lands within her limits ; that the time 
has come when to postpone this redemption would be essen- 
tially a breach of faith, of which the United States will 
never permit herself to be suspected ; that, consulting the 
comfort and happiness of the Indians alone, the United 
States have omitted to press this measure upon them until 
the very last hour ; that the United States have made sac- 
rifices for Indian interest, and will expect some small ones 
from the Indians in return ; that, if they desire civilization, 
nothing is more consistent with it than concentration ; and 
that, without regard to the acquisitions of territory, the 
United States have acted upon this principle from the begin- 
ning, as a fundamental one in their system of improvement ; 
that beyond the limits of Georgia, and within the territory 
proper of the United States, there are lauds enough for the 
Cherokees and all their generations to come, of which the 
United States possess the full and absolute dominion, where 
they may sit down in quiet and peaceful enjoyment, and 
where none can come to make them afraid; that, on the 
other hand, if tired of the arts of civilization, they will 
betake themselves to their old pursuits, you have made a 
fair and liberal offer of wilderness enough, abounding in 
game, where the white man will not speedily come to trespass 
or to annoy ; that, in presenting these honorable overtures, 
you are actuated by a sincere regard to Indian interest ; 
that, in the rejection of both, you can perceive nothing but 
an unfriendly spirit ; and that, finally, if they persevere in 
this rejection, the consequences are inevitable : 1st, that you 
must assist the Georgians in occupying the country which 
is their own, and which is unjustly withheld from them ; 



206 LIFE OP GEOR'^E M. TROUP. [Chap, IX. 

o.', 2ndly, in resisting the c^ccupation, to make war upon and 
shed the blood of your V^rothers and friends. 
, Hs'^'i'>io-.said so murih, it remains only to advert to the 
^^\QV top^rjg container^ in your letter to the Indian delegation, 
s^^id for tl'ese a wo- ^ will suffice : 

ilst Tig j.egr'-f*^^ation of part of our territory for the 
sfittlement^f t^:f® /Indians ; 

i' 2nd. _ '5iei:?4-^?riCorporation into and amalgamation with 
' ur socify^y 

li As j iChe first, the answer is, the articles of agree- 
nietit lj,4ving made no provision for such reservation, 
Gorc'-^n be made without the consent of Georgia, and that 
ai;]-/gia will never give her assent to any without an equiv- 
vnt, (if she would, with one,) is absolutely certain. "With 
t;igard to the second proposition, the answer is, that if such 
t, scheme were practicable at all, the utmost of the rights 
and privileges which public opinion would concede to In- 
dians, would fix them in a middle station between the negro 
and the white man, and that as long as they survived this 
degradation without the possibility of attaining the eleva- 
tion of the latter, they would gradually sink to the condi- 
tion of the former ; a point of degeneracy below which 
they could not fall. It is likely that before they reached 
this, their wretchedness would find relief in broken hearts. 
Most assuredly, nothing will contribute so essentially to that 
scanty share of human happiness which is left them, as their 
concentration and insulation, where, having enough for the 
wants of agriculture, they will, in their seclusion, afford no 
pretexts for the intrusions or annoyances of the white man. 
Thus frankly, in compliance with the request of the Presi- 
dent, I submit to him my general views on this interesting 
subj ect. Thus frankly I will deem it my duty to submit them 
to the Legislature of the State. Tbey are such, no doubt, 
as have already suggested themselves. They seem to me 
the only ones which the attitude assumed by tlie Indians 
will suffer us to entertain. I am sorry I cannot support 
them by matter-of-fact information of official character. 
To me this is impossible. I can only say, generall,y, t^:-*- 
among men best informed on Cherokee afiairs, the minds oi 
a majority of the nation are well prepared to receive your 
proposition for removal. 

In conclusion, I must state not only my hope, but my 
conviction, that the President will perceive, in every move- 
ment on our part in relation to this business, a sincere 
desire to harmonize with the Union; to maintain peace and 
tranquillity with the Indians, until longer forbearance will 



Chap. IX.] PEESIDENT'S MESSAGE. 207 

cease to be a virtue ; in fact, to lend ourselves, as we liave 
always done, heart and hand, to the support of every wise 
and virtuous administration of the General Government. 
But the President will, at the same time, consider that 
Georgia has a deep stake in the prompt decision of the 
present question. Of all the old States, Georgia is the only 
one whose political organization is incomplete ; her civil 
polity is deranged ; her military force cannot be reduced 
to systematic order and subordination ; the extent of her 
actual resources cannot be counted ; the great work of in- 
ternal improvement is suspended, and all because Georgia 
is not in the possession of her vacant territory ; a territory 
waste and profitless to the Indians ; profitless to the United 
"States ; but, in the possession of the rightful owner, a source 
oi birength, of revenue, and of union. 

Whilst you present to the President my respects, he 
pleased to accept for yourself the offer of my high consid- 
eration for the part you have taken in this transaction. 

G. M. Teoup. 
Hon. John C. Calhoun, 
Secretary of War, 

Washington City. 

[1824:.] On the 30th of March, the President sent a 
message to Congress, transmitting " certain papers enu- 
merated in a report from the Secretary of War, relating to 
the compact between the United States and the State of 
Georgia, entered into in 1802, whereby the latter ceded to 
the former a portion of the territory then within its limits, 
on the conditions therein specified." Giving a synopsis of 
the fourth article of the compact, the message stated that 
the papers would show the measures adopted by the Exec- 
utive of the United States in fulfilment of its conditions, 
from its date, and particularly the negotiations and treaties 
with the Indian tribes for extinguishing their title, and the 
sums paid for the lands acquired ; also the posture of affairs 
with the Cherokees, " and the inability of the Executive 
to make any further movement with this tribe, without the 
special sanction of Congress." The President further stated 
his full conviction that the best efforts of his predecessors 
had been exerted " to execute this compact in all its parts, 
of which, indeed," said he, " the sums paid and the lands 



208 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. • [Chap. IX. 

acquired during their respective terms, in fulfilment of its 
several stipulations, are a full proof." He further stated 
that he had been animated by the same zeal since he came 
into office, enumerated some of the means that had been 
lately used to induce the Cherokees to remove beyond the 
Mississippi, their refusal to cede any more land, &c. 
"Whilst his impression was strong " that it would promote 
essentially the security and happiness of the tribes within 
our limits, if they could be prevailed on to retire west and 
north of our States and Territories, on lands to be procured 
for them by the United States," he said, " I have no hesi- 
tation, however, to declare it as my opinion that the Indian 
title was not affected in the slightest circumstance by the 
compact with Georgia, and that there is no obligation on 
the United States to remove the Indians by force. The ex- 
press stipulation of the compact, that their title should be 
extinguished at the expense of the United States, when it 
may be done peacecobly and on reasonable conditions, is a 
full proof that it was the clear and distinct understanding 
of both parties to it, that the Indians had. a right to the 
territory, in the disposal of which they were to be regarded 
as free agents. An attempt to remove them by force, 
would, in my opinion, be unjust. In the future measnies 
to be adopted in regard to the. Indians within our limits, 
and, in consequence, within the limits of any State, the 
United States have duties to perform and a character to 
sustain, to which they ought not to be indifferent. At an 
early period, their improvement in the arts of civilized life 
was made an object with the Government, and that has 
since been persevered in. This policy was dictated by 
motives of humanity to the aborigines of the country, and 
under a firm conviction that the right to adopt and pursue 
it was equally applicable to all the tribes within our limits." 
He submitted the matter to Congress, to " decide whether 
any measure on the part of Congress is called for at the 
present time, and what such measure shall be, if any is 
deemed expedient." 
The report of the Secretary of War reviewed the state 



Chap. IX.] STATISTICAL EXTRACTS. 209 

of affairs with the Creeks and Cherokees at the date of the 
convention with Georgia, in 1802, and the subsequent 
measures taken to obtain cessions of land, and the supposed 
grounds of faihire in many instances. The following sta- 
tistical extracts will be interesting : 

" At the date of the convention, the Indians owned, with- 
in the limits of Georgia, 25,980,000 acres, of which 19,578,- 
890 acres belonged to the Creeks, and 7,152,110 acres to 
the Cherokees, which tribes owned, besides, a considerable 
extent of country in the States of Alabama, Tennessee and 
North Carolina'. Between both of those tribes and the 
United States there were subsisting treaties, at the time of 
the date of the convention, which, among other things, 
fixed the limits of their respective territories, and guaran- 
tied to them the lands within those limits. [See 1st vol. 
XJ. S. Laws — Treaty with the Creek Indians, p. oGl, art. 5. 
Treaty with the Creeks, ratified 7th August, 1790. Same, 
page 327, Treaty of Ilolston, 1791, art. 7. Same, page 332, 
Treaty of 1798, near Tellico, articles 1 and 3.] In fulfilment 
of the stipulation of the 1th article with Georgia, there have 
been held seven treaties with the Creeks and Cherokees ; of 
which five were with the former ; two of which were previous 
to the late war with Great Britain, in 1812, and three since. 
By the two preceding the declaration of war,there were ced- 
ed to Georgia 2,713,890 acres, and, by the three latter, 12,034, 
800 acres, making together li, 748,690 acres. With the Che- 
rokees there have been held two treaties, both since the late 
war, by which Georgia has acquired 995,310 acres, which, 
added to that acquired by treaties with the Creek nation, 
make 15,744,000%cres that have been ceded to Georgia 
since the date of the convention, in fulfilment of its stipu- 
lations. In acquiring these cessions for the State of Georgia, 
the United States have expended $958,954.90 ; to which 
should be added the value of 995,310 acres, which were 
given in exchange with the Cherokees, on the Arkansas 
river, for a similar quantity ceded by the Clierokees to 
Georgia, by the treaties of 1817 and 1819, which lands, 
estimated at the minimum price of the public lauds, would 
make $1,244,137.50. If to these Vv^c add the sum of Sl,250,-- 
000 paid to Georgia under the convention, and §4,282,151,- 
12 1-2 paid to the Yazoo claimants, it will be found that 
the United States have already paid, under the convention, 
$7,735,243,52 1-2, which does not include any portion of 
the expense of the Creek war, by which upwards of seven 
millions of acres were acquired to the State of Georgia." 
27 



210 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IX. 

The following is the conclusion of the report: 
" In performing the high duties of humanity to the 
wretched aborigines of our country, it has never i3een con- 
ceived that the stipulation of the convention with Georgia, 
to extinguish the Indian title within her limits, was contra- 
vened. The government has been actuated solely by a 
desire to perform the obligation which considerations of 
humanity imposed on us, in relation to these unfortunate 
people. Their situation, at best, is wretched, and can only 
be rendered tolerable by the perpetual exercise of that 
humanity, kindness and justice which has ever character- 
ized the acts of the government towards them." 

The foregoing extracts and synopsis may suffice to ex- 
plain some portions of the previous letter of Gov. Troup to 
the Secretary of War, and as an introduction to that which 
follows : 

Executive Department. Ga., 
JfUledrjeviUe, 24^ A April, 1824. 

Sir: — I cannot refrain from the expression of my sur- 
prise at the late communication which the President has 
thought proper to make to Congress, on the subject of the 
claims of Georgia against the United States, under the 
articles of agreement and cession of the year 1802. 

Assuming, as it does, principles which I controvert ; as- 
serting facts which I cannot permit myself to admit, it 
becomes my duty in the recess of the Legislature of Geor- 
gia, to enter my protest in behalf of the people of this 
State against them, in the same manner as I believe they 
would themselves do, if they had an opportunity of speak- 
ing by their immediate EejJresentatives." The avowal of 
these principles, the assertion of these facts, involves the 
destruction of the compact between Georgia and the United 
States, makes it null and void, and leaves no alternative to 
Georgia but acquiescence or resistance. 

If nullified by the act of one party, the other party is 
absolved, and both are free to declare the resumption of 
their original rights. Will this cancelment make for 
Georgia or the United States? Give ns back our lands; 
we give you back your money ; and, without making war 
upon the States of Alabama and Mississippi, we will run 
the risk of concluding with them the best bargain we can. 
It would be a better bargain for Georgia, than that the ex- 
ecution of which we urge upon the General Government- 
But, before this, we will have to ask a little money of you. 



Chap. IX.] LETTER TO THE SECRETARY OF WAR. 211 

Refund to Georgia the five millions which yon gratnitonsly 
presented to certain persons, the price of the pacification of 
New England, and which yon paid from the proceeds of 
our lands. And is it come to this ? Is it discovered at last 
that Georgia has no claims either npon the United States, 
or upon the Indians, under the compact of 1802? That it 
is all a dream, a vision, a phantasma, with which the de- 
luded people of Georgia have been plaguing themselves for 
twenty years ! And I pray you of what other construction 
is the Message to Congress susceptible ? Are not the In- 
dians there treated as allodial proprietors? As an inde- 
pendent people, having plenum et absoluium dominiuTn, 
and seized j^yif?/' my et 2'>eT tout ; and that therefore Georgia 
can take nothing but at their will and pleasure ? 

The United States have promised, in the compact, to ex- 
tinguish for Georgia the Indian claims to the lands reserved, 
as soon as it conld be done peaceably and on reasonable 
terms. The President, in his message, construes this into a 
stipulation, to do in this respect whatever it might please 
the Indians at any time to do. Of what value was such a 
stipulation to Georgia ? She could take nothing by it 
which she had not without it. Georgia might, according 
to the President, entreat the United States to ask the favor 
of the Indians, to sell peaceably and on reasonable terms, 
and if the Indians pleased to answer No ! Never! the just 
claims of Georgia were satisfied now and forever. , Was 
ever such a stipulation heard of before, either in compact 
between government and government, or in contract be- 
tween man and man ? Georgia has not required the United 
States to invade Indian rights, to satisfy her claims. She 
has only asked of the United States to do for her what she 
has done for herself; acquire Indian lands whensoever and 
wheresoever she wanted them ; employ the same means for 
us in the fulfilment of Treaty obligation, which you habit- 
ually employ for yourselves without any such obligation. 
In short, do as you did in the case of the Florida Treaty 
and others. When the President says he and his predeces- 
sors have invariably done so, may he not have forgotten 
the Treaty of 1814, when a commanding word to General 
Jackson would have procured for us the Creek lands with- 
in our limits, on at least as good terms as it did procure 
other lands for the United States beyond them? I appeal 
to the records of your ofiice, sir, as the voucher of the fact, 
that when that treaty was negotiated, the obligations of the 
United States were no more remembered than if the com- 
pact of 1802 had never existed. Make an estimate from 



212 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IX. 

the same records of what yon, since 1803, have acquired 
for yourselves, and compare it with what, under the pledo-es 
of the agreement, you have acquired for Georgia. The 
difference will be about as one hundred to an unit. , And 
yet it is asserted that the United States have sought every 
ojoportunity to fulfil the stipulations of the compact. And 
may I ask the favor of you, sir, to put your finger on that 
particular part- of them, where it is shown that a proposi- 
tion to extinguish claims in your behalf, has been answered 
by the potent monosyllable No ! and that you have been 
content ? The history of the Plymouth Colony and of 
William Penn might have been illustrated by the patience 
with which such an answer had been borne. The United 
States have never pretended, until now, that it would be 
borne at all. Now we turn over a new leaf — the principle 
of the old treaty of Philadelphia, the qidd^jro quo principle, 
must govern all treaties and satisfy all consciences. Would 
it had been so from the beginning. I confess to you, sir, 
I do not like this kind of half honesty. If the principle of 
Penn's Treaty was right, that of every other which followed, 
was wrong, and he who has done wrong is in point of con- 
science bound to get back to right. To undo promptly and 
directly what you have unrighteously done, is a dictate, I 
think, of the Platonic and Socratic school ; undoubtedly 
that of a much higher, the Christian. 

Begin, therefore, with Georgia, if you please, to unsettle 
all that has been settled ; but let not Georgia be the first 
and the last. Say, in a spirit of repentance, that what we 
have taken unlawfully we will restore ; that the edict of 
Pope Alexander, of pious memory, shall pass for nothing ; 
the proclamations and charters of divers Kings of England 
for nothing ; priority of occupation, priority of civilization, 
priority of Christianity, all nothing ; Spanish precedent, 
which, by the law of force, took everything and gave in 
return stripes and blows, of course for nothing ; and, be- 
seeching the forgiveness of sins, return to the principles 
and practices of William Penn. 

But then is not atonement still due to the Aboriginal ? 
How (if you take the rule of the message for yoiir guide,) 
can you repair the wrongs of all kinds done him since the 
landing on the rock of Plymouth? Your whole substance 
would not compensate them by one half. But, sir, not 
even the Puritans and the Quakers will consent to give up 
now, and, if things are to remain as we find them, why is 
Georgia to be selected as a propitiary offering? It is a fact 
unquestionable, that for fifteen or twenty years past, well 



Chap. IX.] LETTER TO THE SECRETARY OF WAR. 213 

knowing your obligations to Georgia under tlie compact, 
you have encouraged the Cherokees to make progress in 
all the arts of civilized life of first necessity and comfort, 
within the acknowledged limits of Georgia. They have 
been rearing flocks and herds, constructing comfortable 
buildings, making agricultural improvements of various 
kinds, organizing a government adapted to the grade of 
civilization they had reached, with schools and religious 
establishments appurtenant, &c., &c. And you encour- 
aged the beginning and progress of these things, with certain 
foreknowledge they could by no possibility endure. They 
have been taught by the United States to value them as 
they ought ; if they had not been taught altogether at our 
expense, and without our consent, we would have had no 
objection. But this has been the sole cause of the unwil- 
lingness of any part of the Cherokees to move. The United 
States, therefore, create the cause — the Cherokees avail 
themselves of it, to turn their backs upon your propositions 
for negotiation, and you have no means of escaping the 
difficulty, but by asserting for the Cherokees rights which 
they have not, and denying rights to Georgia which you 
ought to know she has. 

I do most earnestly wish, sir, that this subject could be 
disposed of forever. It never recurs but the heart sickens 
at the recollection of the crimes connected with it. And 
are the wrongs of Georgia never to have an end ? When 
the proclamation of '(U* gave to Georgia the country be- 
tween the Atlantic and the Mississippi, it was thought we 
took something by it. It was not believed it gave us what 
we and all mankind had before, the right to ask the Indians 
to sell lands in fair market. We not only thought differ- 
ently, but acted differently. We knew that the whole 
country was ours in virtue of the very best kind of title 
then recognized by civilized Europe, and, paying proper 
respect to the occupation of Indians, we exercised all the 
rights of sovereigns and masters, until Mr. Adams con- 
ceived a notion that part of the country belonged to him. 
So he said to us : That part which you occupy you may 
keep — the rest 1 will take to myself. Accordingly he sat 
down with his army on the banks of the Mississijjpi, and 
erected a Territorial Government ; Georgia was in no con- 
dition to resist. She began therefore to supplicate ; from 
supplication she passed, by an eflfort of great courage, to 

* The royal commission to Gov. 'Wright, in 1764, is probably here meant, and not the 
proclamation of 1763.— Ed. 



211 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IX. 

remonstrance, and thence suddenly into tlie articles of 
agreement and cession, where we still find her. Bnt, in the 
mean time, what had happened ? I blush to think of it. 
The evils of that sore and nameless iniquity are felt at this 
hour in all the ramifications of society. The instigators and 
plotters of it you paid handsomely. How, I will not say ; 
the secret is yet to be revealed. The purity of the Presi- 
dent has no doubt kept him a stranger to it, to this moment. 
But, after all, having proceeded in a course of piece-meal 
execution of the Articles for twenty years, why do you stop 
short, and say to us — all this has been gratuitous ; we 
owed you nothing, and we have paid you a great deal ; 
your restlessness and inquietude and importunities ; our 
harassments and perplexities and expenses, have all been 
the results of false conceits and hallucinations, and they 
must have an end. Accordingly, it is recommended to end 
them, by proposing a removal of the Indians, with their 
consent ; not because the United States are bound by the 
compact to take this, or any other measure, to place Georgia 
at once in possession of her territory ; but because of con- 
siderations confined exclusively to the welfare and pros- 
perity of the Indians. I am, notwithstanding, gratified 
that the President and myself, difteriug unfortunately on 
other points, should concur in this as a measure indispen- 
sable to the improvement of the condition of the Indians, 
and necessary to secure their permanent peace and happi- 
ness. But why this could not have been accomplished 
without the intervention of Congress, I cannot easily con- 
ceive. A treaty for the exchange of lands would seem to 
me to be as obviously within the compass of Executive 
powers, as a treaty for the ^uj^chase of lands, or any other 
object. If the instrument of persuasion is the only admis- 
sible one for the attainment of the end, I do not know how 
Congress can, by any act of theirs, make that which is 
already in the hands of the President, more eflicient for 
your own purposes. Delay is certain to follow, and, anxious 
as we are to know our fate, it is delay we deprecate. 

The first detachment from the body of the Cherokees, 
moved across the Mississippi, on the naked promise or sug- 
gestion of Mr. Jeflerson ; a majority of the Cherokees would 
do so now. 

One more instance, if you please, of the unkind and un- 
friendly treatment recently received at the hands of the 
United States. The President, in the course of the present 
session, has considered it his duty to recommend to Con- 
gress to make provision for the claims of the Massachusetts 



CnAP. K.] LETTER TO THE SECRETARY OF WAR. 215 

militia ; claims which Congress had hitherto refused to 
recognize, because, with very few exceptions, that militia, 
(in the late war with England, flafjmnte hello,) were arrayed 
against the constituted authorities of the Federal Govern- 
ment. 

Georgia, too, has militia claims against the Federal Gov- 
ernment, of some 20 or 30 years standing, which have been 
constantly urged upon the justice of Congress. I remem- 
ber to have introduced them before the Senate, ^nd, so 
unexceptionable were they deemed by that enliglitened 
body, their validity was sanctioned without a dissenting 
voice. They would have passed the House of Representa- 
tives, also ; but, on their way, they fell into bad company ; 
they fell in with the Massachusetts claims, then most 
obnoxious, and shared their fate. They were claims for 
services faithfully and patriotically rendered in defence of 
our frontier against the Indians. They amount to $120,000, 
at least. Wlien we press the United States for payment, 
the answer is : These claims, and all other claims of 
Georgia, were merged in the articles of agreement and ces- 
sion ; and, when we go to look tor the article in which this 
supposed mersion is to be found, we will as readily iind it 
in that very important one which gives to us the right to ask 
the lands of the Indians, and to the Indians the correspond- 
ing right to answer no ! as in any other. 

I will trouble you no further on this unpleasant subject. 
Tlie causes which lead me to the expositions and references 
contained in this paper, are not of my seeking. I would 
willingly have avoided them. The absolute denial of our 
rights, as we understand, and have long understood them, 
at the moment when we believed they would have been 
most respected, is a subject of mortification and regret. 
So far as I participate these feelings with my countrymen, 
I assure you, sir, they are not the offspring of this day or 
this hour. Smarting under a sense of our wrongs, within 
the first hour I set m}^ foot on the floor of the Senate 
Chamber, I had occasion to expose the wrongs of Georgia, 
and to apprise the Senators that I would never vote for an 
Indian treaty, until the claims of Georgia were satisfied. 
My convictions and my feelings remain the same to this 
day. ISTevertheless, my sentiments towards the President 
are unchanged. Who can be exempt from error, amidst the 
cares and troubles of such an office? What heart so cal- 
lous as not to pardon injuries inflicted by it? We forgive, 
but our rio-hts are still our rights. At what time and in 



216 I^IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IX. 

what manner tliey will be asserted, must depend upon tlie 
representatives of the people. 

Respectfully, . G. M. Tkoup. 

The Hon. J. C. Calhoun, 

Secretary of War, Washington. 

The Georgia delegation * in Congress were not inatten- 
tive to passing events. On the 10th of March, they 
addressed a letter to the President, from which we extract 
the following : 
To the President of the United States : 

The Secretary of War has addressed to the gentlemen 
composing the Georgia delegation to Congress, copies of 
the extraordinary documents furnished by persons who are 
called the Cherohee delegation. As this is believed to be 
the first instance in which a diplomatic correspondence has 
been held with Indian Chiefs, and in which they have been 
addressed by the Department of War, in the same terms 
with those used to the representation of a State, it becomes 
a subject of incpiiry in what light the Cherokees are at pre- 
sent viewed by the government of the United States. If, 
as an independent nation, to be treated with all the forms 
of diplomatic respect, the negotiation with them should be 
transferred to the Department of State, and will, no doubt, 
be preceded by a proper examination into their authority to 
speak for the Cherokee tribe, on matters aifecting its pros- 
perity and existence. If to be viewed as otlier Indians / as 
persons sufiered to reside within the territorial limits of the 
United States, and subject to every restraint which the 
policy and power of the general government require to be 
imposed on them, for the interest of the Union, the interest of 
a particular State, and their own preservation, it is necessary 
that these misguided men should be taught by the Gen- 
eral Government that there is no alternative between their 
removal beyond the limits of the State of Georgia and their 
extinction. The government of the United States will de- 
ceive them grossly, if they are led to believe that, at this 
day, their consent is necessary to the fulfilment of its obli- 
gations to the State of Georgia. Their will must yield to 
the paramount duties of the general government to itself 
and to each member of the confederacy. The Cherokees 
allege, (if, indeed, the representation is made with their 
authority,) that they are resolved neither to leave nor sell 

* Col. Tattnall was absent from indisposition.— Ed. 



CiiAr. IX.] REMONSTRANCE OF GEORGIA DELEGATION. 217 

the lauds on which they reside — lands wliich belong to the 
State of Georgia; over which Georgia did claim sover- 
eignty nntil the adoption of the federal Constitution, and 
over which she will exercise her powders whenever any ad- 
ministration of the general government resolves to fix per- 
manently upon them any persons who are not^ and whom, 
she will never suiFer to heGome her citizens. The doctrines 
of the general government, sanctioned by the highest tri- 
bunals, vindicate the claim of Georgia to the ownership of 
the soil. The Indians are simply occupants — tenants at will 
— incapable of transferring even their naked possession,' 
except through the instrumentality of the United States, to 
the State of Georgia. Aware of the tenure by which their 
temporary possession is held, their head men have sought, in 
many instances, to secure from the United States a title to 
the soil itself. Stipulations have been entered into by the 
general government, equally contradictory to the rights of 
Georgia and the obligations of the United States ; stipu- 
lations, however, which show that the general government 
have the acknowledged right to transfer the possession of 
the Cherokee lands to the State of Georgia. The power 
w^hich takes from the Cherokee t7"ibe a portion of soil to 
confer it on a Cherokee chiefs under a different tenure, can 
rightfully take from the Cherokee nation for the benefit of 
a State. 

It is Vv^ith deep concern that the necessity is felt, of press- 
ing upon the general government the considerations that 
are due to its character for good faith in its contracts with 
a member of the Union. Since the year 1802, implicit re- 
liance has been placed in the general government ; and the 
just expectation has been indulged, that, in the execution 
of its high duties, the executive administration Avould care- 
fully and steadily pursue the object for which the faith of 
the Union was pledged — the peaceable extinguisJunent, on 
reasonaUe terms, of the Indian title to all the lands within 
the territorial limits of Georgia. In 1817, the public decla- 
ration of the President to Congress, that an arrangement 
had been made, by which, in exchange for lands beyond 
the Mississippi, a great part, if not the whole, of the lands 
possessed by the Cherokee tribe eastward of that river, in 
the States of North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia, and 
in the Territory of Alabama, would be soon acquired, gave 
a just expectation that the national pledge given to Georgia 
would be redeemed. In the eight years which have succeed- 
ed, these anticipations of the President have been realized 
28 



218 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IX. 

eveiywlicre bnt in Georgia. The successive piircliases 
made, since that period, have crowded the Cherohees ont of 
Tennessee, North Carolina and Ahibama, ahnost altogether 
into Georgia ; and tlie terras upon which they have been 
made, have created all the difficnlties now encountered 
in tlie pcacef'id acqidsition^ on reasonable terms ^ of the land 
upon which the Cherokees are now permitted to remain ; 
difhculties which are every hour increasing, from the policy 
pursued by the general government. * '"' * 

If the Cherokees are unwilling to remove, the causes of 
that unwillingness are to bo traced to the United States. 
If a peaceable purchase cannot be made in the ordinary 
mode, nothing remains to bo done but to order their re- 
moval to a designated territory beyond the limits of 
Georgia, and give an ample equivalent for the territory left 
by them, and an ample support to the territory grauted to 
them. An order of this kind will not be disregarded by 
the Cherokee tribe, whose interest will be essentially pro- 
moted l)y a compliance with it, (vdiatever may be the 
effect of it upon a few chief men, Avho seem to consider 
their oiun interest as separate and distinct from that of their 
brethren,) as it must be obvious that a tranquil and undis- 
turbed possession of a permanent property can alone enable 
them to acquire the arts of civilized life, and to secure to 
them its benefits. 

Our duty is performed by remonstrating against the 
policy heretofore pursued, by which the interests of Georgia 
have been disregarded, to the accomplishment of other 
objects of general interest ; and a compliance with a solemn 
promise postponed, for the acquisition of territory for the 
general government ; and by insisting^ as we do most 
earnestly, upon an immediate fulfilment of the obligations of 
the articles of cession, concluded in 1S03, as the only means 
by which justice can be done to the State we represent, and 
the character of the general government be vindicated. 

J. Elliott, ] o i. 
K Ware, f ^^'^^^^''^- 

Joel Abbott, 

Geo. Cart, 

Th. "W. Cobb, , -r, - -• 

A r^ y Kepresentatives. 

A. CuTHBEET, j ••■ 

■ joun foksytii, 

Wiley Thompson, 

WashingtoQi, 10th March, 1824. 



GuAV. IX.] REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE. 219 

Notliing special seems to have been done in regard to 
tliis matter, dm^ing tlie then session of Congress, except to 
refer it in the House to a select committee, of which Mr. 
Forsyth was chairman.^'" On the 14th of April he made a 
long report, which, on his motion, was referred to a Com- 
mittee of the Whole on the state of the Union. In regard 
to the right of Georgia to sovereignty and soil, the report 
said : 

" The State of Georgia claimed, on the establishment of 
the Independence of the United States, all the lands now 
forming the States of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, 
with the exceptions of those portions of the two last States 
which formed a part of Florida and Louisiana. This claim 
was founded upon the charter of incorporation of the pro- 
prietary goverinnent ; on the royal commissions issued to 
the Governors of the State, after the proprietors had sur- 
rendered their charter to the Crown. Tlie claim was 
disputed by South Carolina, and by the United States. 
The conflicting claims of South Carolina and Georgia were 
adjusted by a convention between them, in 1787. The 
United States recognized, by the treaty with Spain of the 
year 1795, the claim of Georgia, [Journals of old Congress, 
vol. 13, pp. 49, 50,] liaving refused, in 1788, a cession from 
the State, on account of the remoteness of tlie lands, and of 
the terms proposed by Georgia. In April, 1798, Congress 
passed a law [Laws of United States, vol. 3, p. 39,] in rela- 
tion to the western part of the territory of Georgia, with a 
reservation of the rights of Georgia to the jurisdiction and 
soil. In May, 1800, another ac"t [Laws of United States, 
vol. 3, p. 380,] was passed, containing a similar reservation. 
In December, 1800, Georgia remonstrated against these 
acts, as a violation of her right of sovereignty and soil. 
[Reports of Con. : 2d sess., 0th Cong., p. 87.] "The compact 
of 1802 put an end to the disputes which were likely to 
arise out of this collision between the General and State 
governments. By this compact, the United States obtained 
a surrender of the right of Georgia to the sovereignty and 
soil of two States, containing, by estimate, eighty-six mil- 
lions of acres of land, for the paltry consideration of the 
payment of $1,250,000, out of. the '-proceeds of that land, 
and of a promise to extinguish the Indian title to the land 
within the territorial limits not ceded to the United States, 
as soon as it could be done peaceably and on reasonable 

* The conimitteo consisted of Messrs. John Forsyth, Alfred Cuthbert and Thomas W. 
Cobb, of Georgia, George McDuffio, of Soutk Carolina, and John Long, of North Carolina.— Ed, 



220 I^IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IX. 

terms. The execution of this compact produced no change 
in the right of Georgia to the sovereignty and soil of the 
land within her newly defined boundaries. Its only effect 
was to throw upon the United States the expense which 
might attend the extinguishment of the Indian title, an 
expense which, Imtfor this compact, must have been borne 
by the State. ]N"or did this compact, in the slightest cir- 
cumstance, add to the title of the Indians ; it recognized 
the claim only they, as Indians, were allowed to have, 
according to the usages of the States, and the liberal policy 
adopted towards them by the general government." 

After an able review of the whole subject, the report 
said: 

" The committee do not, however, believe that any serious 
difficulty now exists to the peaceable extinguishment of the 
Indian title, on reasonable terms. An order from the gen- 
eral government, for their removal, would be cheerfully 
acquiesced in, if accompanied by the necessary preparation 
for the prosperity of the tribe, and a just equivalent for the 
temporary inconveniences they might suffer." 

The report concluded with recommending the following 
resolutions : 

" Hesolved, That the United States are bound, by their 
obligations to Georgia, to take, immediately, the necessary 
measures for the removal of the Cherokee Indians beyond 
the limits of that State. 

" Resolved., That such an arrangement with.thp State of 
Georgia should be made, as may lead to the final adjust- 
ment of the claims of that State, under the compact of 1802, 
with the least possible inconvenience to the Cherokee and 
Creek Indians within the boundary of the State. 

" Besolved, That the sum of dollars should be 

appropriated for the purposes expressed in the above 
resolutions." 

[1824.] In the U. S. Senate, on the IGth of April, a 
communication was received, in the form of a memorial, 
from John Eoss, George Lowrey, Major Eidge and Elijah 
Hicks, "delegates from the Cherokee nation of Indians," 
animadverting on the letter of Governor Troup to the 
Secretary of War, of 28th February, and the letter of the 
Georgia delegation to the President, and in which, speaking 
of the emigration of the Cherokees, they said, " such an 
event will never take place.'''' 



Chap. IX.] HIS FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 221 

Tlie memorial having been read, 

Mr. Elliott, of Georgia, said he objected to a contest of 
this character, in this place, with the Cherokee delegation. 
He knew them only as other Indians, and to be treated with 
as such. If they claim to represent an independent nation, 
why do they address this body directly, and not throngh 
the Department of State ? But, if they seek to be heard in 
their real character, they should present their claims to our 
consideration through the War Department. The course 
now attempted is novel and inadmissible, and he hoped the 
communication would lie on the table. It was then ordered 
to lie on the table. 

As no treaty was made with the Cherokees during the 
administration of Governor Troup, and their removal to 
the West belongs to that part of the history of Georgia 
subsequent to his retirement from the public councils, we 
must here dismiss this subject, recurring to it only so far 
as it becomes connected with his messages to the Legisla- 
ture or his official correspondence. In his first annual 
message, the subject is presented prominently, and the 
views therein expressed have, in principle, relation as well 
to the Creek as the Cherokee Indians. 

The running and marking the dividing line between 
Georgia and Alabama having been brought to the notice 
of the Legislature, a resolution was adopted, at the session 
of 1823, for continuing the exertions which had already 
been commenced for that purpose ; and early in the year 
1821 Governor Troup opened a correspondence with the 
Governor of Alabama and the President of the United 
States, on this subject, the result of which will be found in 
his annual message. 

The General Assembly met on the 1st of JSlovember ; on 
the second, the Governor sent in his first annual message, as 
follows : 

Executive Depaetment, Georgia, \ 
Milledgeville, 2d ]^ov., 1824. f 
Fdloto- Citizens of the Senate 

and House of Representatives : 

It is a matter of gratulation, that since the last assembly 



222 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IX. 

of the Legislature, the United States liave continued in a 
state of peace vv^itli all nations, courting amicable relations 
with all by a just and impartial system, and exhibiting at 
the same time the armor necessary to command respect to 
our rights everywhere. Connected with such happy aus- 
pices, the present year has been made memorable by the 
landing of General, late* Marquis, La Fayette, on the soil 
where the first years of his distinguished life were devoted, 
by purse and sword, to defend all tliat Vv^e held sacred of 
political and civil rights. It was due to him to be invited 
by the chief magistrate, in the name of the people of the 
State, to our bosoms, and it was accordingly done. 

When it is said the United States have so far caused 
their rights to be respected by all nations, it is by no 
means to be understood that such a state of things can be 
lasting. The wisest policy — the most pacific dispositions, 
will not assure us against a change. At this moment, an 
organized confederacy of despots in Europe, more formida- 
ble than ever known before, shake their bloody sceptre at 
all nations who contend for freedom and the rights of man. 
The United States and Great Britain present the only 
barrier to the destruction of liberty, else the spirit which 
animates the Greek, in his glorious struggle with the Turk, 
would have been extinguished. South America subdued, 
and our firesides assailed. So long as the United States 
and England are leagued against them, these enemies of 
the human race dare not commit themselves to the seas. 
Meanwhile, the progress of mind, always seeking liberal 
principles, will make the cause of right and justice stronger 
every day, until this array of tyrants shall be broken and 
scattered, and liberation from thraldom be complete and 
universal. 

The strongest operative principle of the American insti- 
tutions in diifusing blessings of all kinds among savage and 
civilized men, is the principle of universal toleration, re- 
ligious and political. This principle, having its foundation 
in the American constitutions of government, is dispensing 
its beneficent influences everywhere, to tlie uttermost ends 
of the earth ; and, in perfect accord and harmony with the 
jDrecepts of the gospel, it will make that gospel more and 
more active in the reclamation of human nature in regions 

* This is consistent with the usual accuracy of Gov. Troup. It may not be generally 
remembered, that when, at the period of her Revolution, France attempted Kepublican 
government, La Fayette, in 1790, took the oath of fidelity to the constitution, having, some 
months before he took the oath, V'^uouuccd his hereditary title, which he never aftcrnvards 
resumed.— Ed. 



Chap. IX.] HIS FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 223 

where the rose never blossomed, and where the savage 
continues to hunt his fellow-man as the beast of the forest. 
In fact, for the spreading of the benign doctrines of Christi- 
anity among the idolater and heathen, there is reason 
to believe that an All-foreseeing Providence has made this 
great, and, I hope, unambitious nation, its chief instru- 
ment. If the millennium is to come, American institu- 
tions, under the same direction, will brino- it to pass. 
Then, for the first time, comes the epoch of universal peace. 
Before that, it is our business and our duty to be prepared 
for war. JSTo sovereign State, whatever be its relation to 
others, should suffer itself to be wronged or insulted. The 
weaker, the more strenuously it should insist on its rights, 
the more vigorously defend them. The Romans never 
counted the number of their enemies, and it is better that 
all perish than that one tittle of honor be surrendered. 
Maintaining, however, with reason, justice and firmness, 
those rights which belong to us, we ought to make it our 
care scrupulously to respect the rights of others. 

I call your attention, therefore, to the state of our Militia 
— under a good system, a bulwark — under a bad one, a 
rope of sand. It is recommended to you, most earnestly, 
to revise your system. Pains have been taken to give it 
all the efhcacy of which it was susceptible. Wanting an 
energetic principle to enforce itself, it would not have been 
made available for even a temporary organization, but for 
the virtue and patriotism of our citizens. These virtues, in 
some degree, supplied the defects of the law, and will en- 
able me to make a tolerably satisfactory estimate of the 
military power of the State. I cannot, in a message like 
this, enter into detail ; 1)ut you have accompanying docu- 
ments which vv'ill suffice to show partially the defects and the 
remedies. But suffer me to entreat, that in this revision 
you look to a military system purely abstracted from, and 
having no connection with, the civil polity. The citizen is 
a dilFerent being from the soldier. Carry the civil law in- 
to the camp, the latter becomes a fungus upon the State. 
Instead of perfect subordination and discipline, which re- 
gard his own preservation and the safety of the country, 
he looks constantly to his civil privileges — makes the law 
for his own government, and decides when he shall look 
the enemy in the face — when betake himself to flight. In 
no country can such a military system be maintained as a 
reliance for defence. Even under the laws of the United 
States, when the militia take the field, they are subjected 



224: LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap, IX. 

to martial law. It is the novelty of tliis restraint wliicli in 
war gives rise to so many difficulties, and causes so many 
embarrassments before the militia are qualified for active 
service ; and how easy for the citizen to learn that, consult- 
ing his own safety and the safety of the State, the moment 
he takes his position in the ranks, his first duty and his first 
virtue is obedience, and how habitually easy in Avar will be 
the practice thus acquired in time of peace. It will be 
vain to attempt to discipline the militia in times of peace, 
unless tlie strictest subordination and obedience can be com- 
manded among all ranks, from the general to the private. 
The basis of any good system is organization. Without 
permanent organization, it need not be attempted to uni- 
form, equip, arm or discipline. The organization of the 
company is the basis of the Avhole, and it is ascertained by 
sufficient experience that it is extremely diflicult to main- 
tain a complete organization of companies under the present 
system. The supineness and indifference of the people who 
elect the company officers in a period of peace, their care- 
lessness in attending elections at all, and consequently the 
very improper selections which are frequently made, have 
had a tendency to impair the value of the commission, which 
ought always to be held honorable. The uncertainty of 
preferment, too, which ought to be the sure reward of merit, 
deters young men of good character from seeking commis- 
sions of the lower grade. In fine, the numerous resigna- 
tions constantly occurring, and the disinclination frequently 
manifested for this service, show the defect to be radical, 
and to require an eflectual remedy. A uniform prescribed 
for the militia, cheap and equally useful in the ordinary 
occupations of life, would have a tendency to diffuse more 
generally that military pride so essential to the character 
of the soldier. The time, it is hoped, will arrive, when, 
under the Avise provisions of the act of Congress for this 
purpose, the whole body of the militia of the United States 
will be supplied with arms and equipments. In this event, 
it will be desirable to establish in each county a central 
depot of arms, to be used on field days, and as the public 
service may require. 

As one of the prominent evils of the existing system is 
the habitual non-execution of the sanctions and penalties 
prescribed by the laws, you will find it indispensable, as 
well for the enforcement of these, as for the uniform and 
regular execution of their general provisions, to provide 
for the appointment of an Adjutant-General, with adequate 



Chap. IX.] HIS FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 226 

rank and emoluments, having his office at the seat of gov- 
ernment ; and, if it be thought proper to establish drill 
schools for the officers in central points of divisions or bri- 
gades, their general superintendence and direction should 
be confided to him under the orders of the Commander-in- 
Chief. The reports of Major-General Newnan and Brig- 
adier-General Harden, merit your attention. 

Intimately connected with the defence, is the public 
education of the country. Every citizen to be qualified 
efficiently to defend his rights and those of his country, 
should possess intelligence enough clearly to understand 
them ; and this, in the complex relations of our political 
system, is at once the more necessary and the more diffi- 
cult. The rich and the poor now unite in the acknowledg- 
ment of the advantages accruing from an enlarged system 
of education, which will quality them equally for all the 
occupations, civil and military, to which the State may call 
them. In the front of the higher academic institutions al- 
ready organized, you will take pleasure to recognize Frank- 
lin College, an ornament, and, under proper endowment, an 
institution of first utility to Georgia. Next, the academies 
of counties, only requiring a fostering hand to cause them 
to flourish and produce fruits worthy of the fathers who 
laid the foundations. I recommend to you to give to these 
institutions liberally and unsparingly, according to their 
wants. But, above all, I recommend that to the poor of our 
fellow-citizens you extend a bountiful hand. A poor and 
honest man is the noblest work of God. How much more 
worthy your care the children, who, under your protecting 
auspices, might be the best of men, under your neglect, the 
worst. ISTothingis more easy than to comprehend all under 
the expanded wings spread over these institutions by the 
Constitution and the laws, which limit your discretion in 
nothing but the duty always imposed upon you to take care 
that, of public moneys appropriated to any object, a strict 
accountability be exacted. The rule of apportioning, annu- 
ally, a specific sum among the different counties, in propor- 
tion to representation, as adopted by an act of the last 
Legislature, is not only a fair one but of easy execution. 

[This paragraph of the message relates to Internal Im- 
provement, and has already been copied into the preceding 
chapter.] 

In calling your attention to the Judiciary, I am oidy di- 
29 



226 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IX. 

rectin ■■ it to objects with wliicli it has been familiar. To 
bring justice as near as possible to the home of every citi- 
zen, "at the least possible expense, and with the greatest 
possible expedition, are maxims of the common law, sound 
and salutary. The best maxims upon paper are of but little 
value, unless carried into practical effect. In England, 
where they have been long disregarded, but whence we de- 
rive our models, they have, at this moment, the worst 
system* of practical municipal jurisprudence of any coun- 
try on earth, and this, chiefly, from the neglect of those 
very maxims. The delays and expenses of justice are ruin- 
ous ; so much so, that the very best part of their system, 
the High Court of Chancery, has become a nuisance to the 
country. (>f what avail are the best principles of juridical 
science to any people, if in practice they are constantly 
abused ? In our system there is quite enough of delay and 
expense, and these may be diminished by discarding some 
silly maxims of the common law. But again, it is to be 
considered that justice should not only be rendered cheaply, 
expeditiously and conveniently, it should be rendered also 
with uniformity — that is, in all like cases, there should be 
like decisions. In the practice under our system, it is im- 
possible to assure this desirable result, from two causes : 
1st. From a number of Judges acting separately and 
apart ; 2nd. From a want of time to mature their decisions 
in the most important cases. It has, no doubt, fallen with- 
in the observation of all of you, that frequently the most 
difficult and complex questions arise before our judges, and 
they have no more time for the investigation of them than 
for the decision of the most plain and simple ones. I advise 
you, therefore, if, for the sake of uniformity, always so de- 
sirable in the administration of justice, you deem it expedi- 
ent to organize a Court of Errors — that you so organize it 
as not to enhance the expense to suitors. It is before such 
courts, as commonly oi-ganized, that this evil is so sorely 
felt by the citizen. The expense is increased. An argu- 
ment is admitted : and this is the source of the expense. 
The argument is good for nothing. The parties before the 

* In vol. 17, p. 91, of Georgia Reports, published in 1856, Hon. Joseph Henry Lumpkin 
says: "tbis complaint is weU brought under Jones' Forms. And so far from construing the 
Act strictly, it should he liberally interpreted, intended as it was to facilitate the recovery 
proyidc;! by law for the redress of wrongs. And it is a feather in the cap of its author, that 
the Commissioners sent to this country from England, to look into the mysteries of Ameri- 
can Law Keform, have transmitted a copy of this Act home, and it now stands upon the Stat- 
ute Book of the British Parliament as a law of the Realm." The Act referred to is that of 
1S47, " to simplify and curtail pleadings at law," of which Hon. John A. Jones is the 
author. — Ed. 



Chap. IX.] HIS FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 227 

court want not the argument — they want the decision. 
They will be quite content witli the argument of the 
judges ; and if the judges, selected for their legal wisdom 
specifically to decide questions of law submitted by the 
records of the courts below, cannot decide correctly with- 
out a labored re-discussion of such questions, not by them- 
selves, but by others who ought not to be their superiors ; 
such a court will only be an evil, by the amount of 
the unnecessary expense thus incurred.* Otherwise, much 
of good might result from it ; more especially, if it be made 
the duty of the court to pass finally upon all questions at 
the first term. 

The compilation and digest of the Statute Law of Eng- 
land in force in this country, has been confided, according 
to your direction, to William Schley, Esq. And Charles 
Harris, Thomas U. P. Charlton and William Davies,Esqrs., 
gentlemen of distinguished eminence at the bar, have been 
appointed with supervisory powers to advise, from time to 
time, alterations or amendments as the work progressed ; 
so that, whilst by this concert and co-operation it will be 
rendered more perfect and complete, its final adoption as 
part of the code of this State will also be rendered more 
certain. In connection with this important subject, may I 
be permitted to suggest a like revision and digest of its 
companion, the common law ? — or, returning to the dark 
ages what belongs to them, would it not be worthy of the 
generation in which we live, if Georgia, by embodying the 
best parts of the common and statutory law of England, the 
Roman civil law, and the Napoleon code, (the last by far 
the best system extant,) were to supply for herself a code 
of Jurisprudential Ethics, which, having their foundations 
in reason, justice and common sense, would be alike appli- 
cable to all times and all circumstances, and, relieving 
Georgia from a dependence on foreign legislation, relieve 
her from reflections humiliating to her pride and mortifying 
to her self-love ? 

The mollified penal code of (Georgia had two humane 
objects in view — 1st, To spare the life of the criminal 

* In tbese last views of Gov. Troup wo cannot concur. The saving of expense to the 
suitor is very desirable ; but that suitor is yet to be found, who would be willing to submit his 
case, involving doubtful facts or intricate questions of law, without the aid of argument from 
his counsel. Besides, competent Judges would not undertake such a task. They want the 
light of every good argument that can beadditced, even " by others who ought not to be their 
superiors." It is a blot on our present system, that even a synopsis of the arguments of coun- 
sel is excluded from our Reports. If this wTre the place to suggest law reforms, we might 
attempt the showing of another way to save expense to suitors. — Ed. 



228 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IX. 

whenever it conld be done with safety to society ; 2d, To 
reform him by confinement and hard labor — a system which 
is constantly exhibited in contrast to the bloody one of 
England, and which, from its congeniality with the Ameri- 
can character and feeling, it wonld be desirable to per- 
petnate. Our code, however, is, in its theoretical detail, 
defective, and I have no doubt that onr Judges, who are 
most familiar with its virtues and its faults, will pronounce 
it so. Its mode of execution is at least equally so. The 
remedy of. both is within your power, and, to apply it, it 
is only necessary to understand clearly what the "defects 
are. It will be seen, on the most superficial survey, that 
we passed at once from the extreme of severity to the ex- 
treme of lenity. It was never believed that, under any 
tolerable system of criminal jurisprudence, punishment 
could be dispensed with, and yet the object of reform ac- 
complished. This, however, is our system in practice. 
There is not even the appearance of punishment connected 
with our Penitentiary establishment, unless the restraint 
upon the liberty of roaming at large for the commission of 
crime, be considered so. The far greater proportion of the 
convicts at all times are better fed, clothed and lodged, 
than they have been accustomed to be ; and, whilst they 
perform the work necessary to keep the body in ahealtlrful 
state, they enjoy not merely the benefits of society, but 
exactly that description of it, which, in or out of the estab- 
lishment, they would seek and court. The punishment, in 
ordinary cases, should be hard labor and solitary confine- 
ment — hard labor by day and solitary confinement by night. 
The practice of crowding four or six convicts in the same 
dormitor}^, is replete with evils which inevitably and di- 
rectly defeat the very end of the institution, Not only is 
vice rendered more vicious by it, but the hope of reforma- 
tion is forever cut ofiT from those who, not hardened in 
iniquity, are willing to contemplate, in darkness and soli- 
tude, tiieir first offences against the law, and the gloomy 
consequences which never fail to follow them. Every 
species of association or intercourse between the convicts 
ought to be suppressed, unless it be that kind of it which is 
indispensably necessary to the performance of the w^ork in 
which they are engaged. Some lessons have been taught 
by the experience of the oldest institutions in the United 
States, which ought not to be lost to us in looking to the 
improvement of our own. The oldest and most obdurate 
offenders acknowledge that continued solitary confinement 
is the severest, the most irksome and most tedious of all 



Chap. IX.] HIS FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 229 

the pnnisliments tliey have suffered ; nevertheless, _ they 
continue obdurate and unredaimed. This fact, whilst it 
affords additional proof of the policy which would prevent 
association or intercourse between older and younger of- 
fenders, and between these and strangers of every descrip- 
tion, may show also the expediency of dispensing with 
continued solitary confinement in most of the aggravated 
cases, and, in place of it, prolonging the time for which 
they are committed. The report of the Principal Keeper 
of the Penitentiary will disclose some judicious observa- 
tions relative to the present state of the police, discipline 
and financial economy of the institution, and certain sug- 
gestions for reform and improvement in each. 

With unfeigned regret I feel myself constrained to expose 
the state of the controversy in "which Georgia has been 
reluctantly involved with the United States. That every 
disposition existed originally on the part of this government 
to pursue our claims against the general government with 
moderation and good temper, is manifest from the pro- 
ceedings themselves. The Executive branch of it imequiv- 
ocally disclaims to have been prompted on his part by any 
other than the most friendly feelings towards the constituted 
authorities of the United States ; "and he fondly trusts that 
whatever of irritation has been engendered, or unkind 
sentiments expressed^ tlie cause is to be sought exclusively 
in the deep conviction felt by the government of Georgia, 
that Georgia was about to suffer flagrant wrong and injustice 
by the course of policy adopted by the United States in 
their intercourse with the Indians. Nov were any com- 
plaints elicited of this, other than such as were made in the 
most decorous and respectful terms, before the delegation 
of Georgia found themselves in an attitude of humiliation 
at Washington, by the comparison, forced upon them, be- 
tween their own relation and that of a certain other 
delegation,* to the Executive government of the United 
States, in their intercourse with it. ISTor was any measure 
resorted to here, of an uncourteous character, until the 
President of the United States, in a message to Congress, 
had so treated the claims of Georgia and the rights of the 
Indians, as to foreclose the former forever from making any 
further claim or demand upon the latter, provided there 
should be a recognition by Congress or by Georgia of the 
doctrine asserted by that message. The Governor would 

* The reference here is to the CheroJcee delegation, mentioned iu a preceding part of 
this chapter, and composed of lloss, Lowrey, Kidge and Ilicks.— Ed. 



230 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IX. 

have been wanting in duty to the people, whom on that 
occasion he represented, if he had not seized the first 
moment to protest, in the strongest language, against such 
doctrines : and whatever may have been oftensive in the 
manner of the protest which he interposed, he insists that, 
in regard to the matter, truth was in every part of it main- 
tained with the most scrupnh^us fidelity. The principle 
asserted by the message was, essentially, that the Cherokees 
were now the fee simple proprietors of the soil they occupy, 
and of consequence that no right of territory could lawfully 
pass from them without their voluntary and express consent 
— a principle so strange and novel, asserted for the first 
time in the history of the government, connected as it was 
with the declaration just previously, obtained from the 
same Indians, that they never would consent to part with 
another foot of territory, amounted to an absolute denial of 
our rights and the destruction of our claims either upon 
the United States or upon the Indians now and forever. 
It was in contestation of this novel and strange principle, 
the Governor of Georgia found it to be his duty to address 
himself to the Executive government of the United States, 
in very plain language. The United States government 
seemed not to have understood our motto or our emblem, 
or, understanding, to have disrespected them. All our 
obligations, therefore, to the United States and to ourselves, 
our love of peace, of harmony and of union, prompted to 
this as the only means of warning the United States gov- 
ernment, in due time, that they were precipitating them- 
selves upon a crisis, the least deplorable of the results of 
which would be the entire ruin and destruction of the 
weaker party — results which could not be sought by the 
United States, and which we, on our part, had the strongest 
motives to avoid. There is yet time to avert them, and it 
is confidently believed they will be averted. It is impossi- 
ble for the United States, upon a deliberate re-examination 
of the subject, ever to persuade themselves that it would be 
possible for the State of Georgia, or any other State possess- 
ing even limited sovereignty, to make a tame abandonment 
and surrender of indisputable and sacred territorial rights, 
to such pretensions as the United States government have 
thought proper to urge in behalf of the Cherokees. The 
documents having relation to this unpleasant subject, ac- 
company this message, and I will add little else to the 
matter of them, save a single fact, to show how much the 
United States government have deceived themselves by 
asserting the principle just adverted to. In the year 1785, 



Chap. IX.] HIS FIRST ANNUAL JIESSAGE. 231 

the United States concluded a treaty at Hopewell, -with the 
Cherokees, in the first article of which it is declared, "that 
the United States give peace to them and receive them in- 
to the favor and protection of the United States," and, 
in the fonrth article of which it is further declared, that 
" the boundary allotted to the Cherokees for their hunting 
grounds, shall be" so and so, comprehending these very 
lands which- we now demand of the United States. And 
this concession of even a usufructuary interest is made on 
certain conditions stipulated in the treaty, and which, of 
course, if violated on the part of the Cherokees, would 
cause a forfeiture of even this right of hunting. The 
treaties of Galphinton and Shoulderbone, between Georgia 
and the Creeks, held in the years '85 and '86, contain 
similar stipulations, recognizing the right of soil, sovereignty 
and jurisdiction to be in Georgia and the United States, 
and the right of hunting only in the Indians, and within 
such limits as Georgia and the United States have desig- 
nated. You will perceive, therefore, that whatever might 
have been tLe kind of tenure by which lands were ac- 
knowledged to be holden by the Indians before the treaty 
of Hopewell, after that treaty, so far as respects the 
Cherokee title to their lands, the tenure was definitively 
settled. If the fee simple had been with them before, from 
that moment it departed from them, and vested in Georgia. 
It could vest nowhere else, because the United States at 
that time recognized the paramount claim of ^'Corgia. 
Now, it would behoove the United States to show how 
Georgia was divested of this title. She could not be 
divested but in virtue of her own express consent, and then 
it behooves the United States to show the treaty, grant or 
concession, in whicli such consent was given. So far from 
the United States being able to do this, we produce the 
articles of agreement and cession, to show a confirmation 
to us of this same territory thus acquired by the treaty of 
Hopewell. Suffer me to add that the United States have, 
in theory and practice, uniformly acted upon the principle 
of the treaty of Hopewell with regard to all other Indians ; 
that is to say, conceding the right of use to the Indians, 
they have reserved to themselves the allodial title, with 
which are essentially connected jurisdiction and sovereign- 
ty ; and that, for some reasons or other altogether unex- 
plained, the case of Georgia has been made an exception, 
both in theory and practice. 

The Commissioners of the United States, in their nego- 
tiations at Ghent, asserted the rights of the sovereignty 



232 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. K. 

and soil of all the Indian country within theh- boundaries, 
to be in the United States, and, consequently, that the 
Indians were mere tenants at will. They asserted, more- 
over, what is undoubtedly true, that the system adopted 
by the United States towards the aborigines, is more liberal 
and humane than that practiced by any other nation before 
them. The treaty of Hopewell is the basis of all other 
treaties with the Cherokees. Its provisions are confirmed 
expressly by the subsequent ones of Philadelphia, in '94, 
Tellico, in '98, and Tellico in 1805. Disregarding the stipu- 
lations of these treaties, the United States acknowledge the 
fee-simple to be in the Indians. The Indians, therefore, 
may rightfully cede certain portions of territory, in fee- 
simple, to private citizens of Georgia. Georgia, in the 
last resort, is forced to draw the sword against her own 
flesh and blood. The United States will then be the pri- 
mary agent in fomenting civil war between the citizens of 
Georgia ; and, what will be more unnatural — the citizens of 
Georgia resident in the Cherokee country, will appeal to 
the government of the United States to vindicate their 
supposed rights, against the assaults of their own brothers. 
Thus, the United States, by their new doctrine, overthrow 
the entire sj^stem of polity before established in their inter- 
course with the Indians, and will, if they persevere, reduce 
Georgia to the necessity of resorting for redress to measures 
depending on herself alone. 

As to the guaranties contained in these treaties, they 
are guaranties to the Indians of the right of hunting on 
the grounds allotted them as securities against the tres- 
passes of the whites, who might interfere with that use, 
and not guaranties of fee-simple title. How could the 
treaties expressly take from the Indians the fee-simple in 
one article and guaranty it to them in another ? If the 
United States have encouraged the Cherokees to make 
expensive improvements on the lands of Georgia, and such 
improvements are assigned as the reason for not making the 
relinquishment, the United States are bound in honor and 
justice to pay the full value of them, and to give to the 
Cherokees territory of their own elsewhere, corresponding 
in extent and fertility with that which they abandon. The 
government of Georgia solemnly disavows any intention 
to do the least injustice to the Cherokees. On the con- 
trary, it would respect their rights as it would those of any 
other people, and will contribute its full quota at all times, 
as it has done in past times, to civilize, improve and j)er- 
petuate a race of men of great nobleness of spirit, and with 



Ciup. IX.] HIS FIRST ANJs^UAL MESSAGE. 233 

whom she has generally lived on terms of peace and 
friendship : bnt it can scarcely he expected by the Cher- 
okees themselves, that obvious and indisputable rights of 
citizens of Georgia should be yielded to any interest of 
theirs, whether real or imaginary. 

The government of the United States have thought proper 
to state an account current"- with the State of Georgia. In 
this account, Georgia is charged with an aggregate of $7,- 
735,243, made up of the following items, viz : ^^1,250,000, 
under the articles of agreement and cession — $958,954 paid 
in extinguishment of Indian claims — $1,244,137, for 995,- 
310 acres of Arkansas land at the minimum price of ^1,25 
— and $4,282,151 paid to the Yazoo claimants. It is per- 
fectly fair and cpiitc consistent with usage, that Georgia, on 
her part, should state an account also ; and, taking the rule 
adopted by the United States, viz : the present minimum 
price of the public lands, the account would stand thus : — 
80,000,000 acres ceded to the United States, at $1,25 per 
acre, $100,000,000 — from which deducting the above 
amount, charged to Georgia by the United States, there will 
be left a net balance,X)f $92,264,757, gratuitously presented 
by Georgia to the United States. It will be recollected, 
however, that from the date of the contract with Georgia, 
in 1802, until the 24tli day of April, 1820, the minimum 
price of public lands had been fixed at $2 per acre, and 
when it is considered that betv/een the two periods no 
lands were sold for less, and large quantities were sold for 
more, the account can thus be stated: — 80,000,000, at $2 
per acre, $160,000,000 ; making the same allowance for 
Arkansas lands exchanged with tlie Cherokees, and giving 
credit to the United States for $1,990,020, instead ol' $1,- 
244,137, the balance due to Georgia would be $151,518,274. 
The whole revenue of the United States would not pay it 
in seven years ; to pay it in one year would involve the 
mass of the population of the United States in infinite 
distress. The interest would have enabled Georgia to dis- 
pense with taxes — to educate all her citizens at the public 
expense — to have armed and equipped her militia — to liave 
made a garden of the face of the country, intersected ev- 
erywhere by turnpikes and canals, and studded with the 
monuments of art. Foregoing these advantages for the 
benefit of the United States, Georgia would have been the 
last to remind the United States that sacrifices had been 

* Referring to the report of the Secretary of War, of 29th March, lS2i, from which 
■we have already extracted, and the account annexed thereto.— Ed. 

30 



234 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IX. 

made on tlieir account, if the Federal government, post- 
poning the rights and interests of Georgia to the imaginary 
rights of the Indians, had not forced upon her a comparison 
of what she is, with what she might have been. 

But it cannot even be conjectured upon what grounds 
Georgia has been charged with the amount paid to the 
Yazoo claimants. Georgia was not consulted in the com- 
promise with those claimants. She never, therefore, gave 
her assent to the compromise. On the contrary, so far as 
she could, she did by her delegation in Congress resist it. — 
Georgia, so long as she remained a moral agent, could never 
assent. The act was, in effect and substance, a formal 
decree of the highest authorities known to the constitution 
of the United States, in perpetual testimony of the reward 
which awaits those who shall in future time successfully 
bribe and corrupt the representatives of the people to sell 
their country ; and, as in this case it was the Legislature of 
Georgia which had been so bribed and corrupted, it could 
not be expected by the United States that her assent ever 
would be given. It would have been equally reasonable, 
if the United States had surrendered the whole country to 
the claimants, and charged Georgia with the value of it. 

No time was lost in transmitting to the President the me- 
morial of the last Legislature on the subject of citizens' 
claims against the Creek Indians, which had been provided 
for by the treaty concluded at the Indian SjDrings.* The 
answer of the President, communicated through the Secre- 
tary of War, is submitted. You will see that the decision 
of which we complained, is considered final, and that no 
revisal of it need be expected. The provision of the treaty 
was undoubtedly designed to cover the whole amount of 
claims of every description and of every date, up to the 
year ISO'2, the justness and fairness of which could be sub- 
stantiated by sufficient evidence. Nevertheless, the Presi- 
dent has thought proper to reject claims for property taken 
and destroyed, only because it happened to be destroyed, 
although the broad and comprehensive words of the treaty 
are '" property taken or destroyed" ; and he has moreover 
resorted to tlie rules of interpretation prescribed by the law 
of nations, to expound treaties concluded with savages, by 
which a farther considerable amount is deducted from the 
claims of Georgia, pre-existing treaties not having, accord- 
ing to those rules, specifically provided for them. This con- 

* The reader will not confound this treaty, mado in 1821, with the subsequent treaty of 
1825.— Ed. 



Chap. IX.] HIS FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 235 

struction is the iijore unreasonable, as those treaties were 
conchided, not by Georgia, but by the United States, who 
ought not now to cause the citizens of Georgia to suffer by 
their own neglect or omission. Georgia, however, having 
improvidently assented to refer those claims to the arbitra- 
ment of the President alone, without appeal, whatever 
reason she may have to complain of the injustice of the 
decision, she is precluded from resorting to any measures of 
her own for redress. The Indians well understanding that 
the aggregate of the claims amounted to more' than |250,- 
000, intended that the entire sum should be applied to the 
satisfaction of them. According to the rules adopted by 
the President, claims to the amount of $100,000 only, have 
been admitted. Whether the balance, viz : $150,000, will 
be credited to the Indians or will pass into the treasury of 
the United States, is not known to me. 

I announce to you, with pleasure, that in compliance with 
the request contained in the memorial of the last session, 
and in fulfilment of the stipulations of the articles of 
agreement and cession, a treaty is about to be holden with 
the Creeks for the extinguishment of their claims to all the 
lands within our limits. May we not flatter ourselves that 
this friendly measure is the precursor of the final adjust- 
ment of all differences between the general government 
and the State of Georgia ; and that, in a like treaty with 
the Cherokees, we may see all dilScnlties removed — ^"the re- 
lations of the two governments restored to what they ought 
to be, and an old contract which has contributed so much 
to disturb them, carried into complete and final execu- 
tion ? 

It gives me great pleasure, also, to be able to inform you, 
on the authority of our agent, that the claims for militia 
services, which have been earnestly and repeatedly pressed 
upon the Federal Government for some 20 or 30 years past, 
and which have so far remained unsatisfied, will be likely 
to find a gracious reception at the ensuing session of Con- 
gress. To promote this desirable result, I recommend to 
you to continue the services of Col. Hunter on the part of 
the State. The justice of these claims is so undoubted, that, 
to be universally acknowledged, they need only be under- 
stood. 

As soon as it was ascertained that Congress had passed an 
act authorizing the President to procure the necessary sur- 
veys, plans and estimates for roads and canals, &c., I ad- 
dressed a letter to the President, requesting that Georgia 
should be admitted to a participation of any benefits or 



236 I'^I^E OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IX. 

advantages wliicli might result to tlie Union from that act, 
and called his attention particularly to the importance of 
connecting the waters of the Savannah with those of the 
Tennessee, and the waters of the St. Mary's with those of 
the Suwanee. His answer, given through the Secretary of 
War, is transmitted herewith. It was presumed that the 
'Congress had derived its power to pass the act, from the 
provisions of the Constitution which authorize it to regulate 
commerce between the different States, and which confide 
to it the defence of the country ; and that no operations 
would be attempted under it which would be confined ex- 
clusiveiy to the limits and jurisdiction of any particular 
State." ' Taking this for granted, so far from opposing ob- 
stacles to its execution, I thought it my duty to interpose 
our claim for that proportion of any good resulting from it, 
which might rightfully belong to Georgia. And here per- 
mit me, as connected with this subject, to ask your attention 
to a resolution of the last Legislature, which authorizes the 
Governor to direct a survey to be made between the navi- 
gable waters of the St. Mary's and Suwanee rivers, for the 
purpose of connecting them by a canal — a measure of great 
interest to Georgia, and unquestionably of first importance 
to the United States — but certainly one which can be car- 
ried into execution by the United States alone. The terri- 
tory through which the canal must pass, is the property of 
the United States, within their exclusive jurisdiction, and 
any survey attempted there, under the orders of the Gov- 
ernor of Georgia, would be considered a trespass and per- 
haps resented accordingly, Whilst, therefore, I feel the 
utmost solicitude that this work should be undertaken 
promptly, and believe, too, that the United States cannot 
engage in one which will contribute so importantly to the 
interests and safety of the whole Union, I humbly submit 
to you the reconsideration of the measure referred to, that, 
if you concur in opinion with me, the resolution may be 
rescinded. Georgia will not voluntarily place herself in 
the wrong with the United States, whilst points in contro- 
versy of a delicate nature remain unadjusted between 
them. 

In executing the resolution of the Legislature, relative to 
the running of the line between this State and the State of 
Alabama, it was discovered from the correspondence 

* In the language of President Mom-oe, in his veto message of 4th May, 1822, "of gener- 
al, not local, national, not State benefit." See also President Jackson's Maysvillo road veto 
message, of 27th May, 1S30. — Ed. 



Ghap. IX.] HIS FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 237 

between the two governments, tliat tlie Executive of the 
United States had never been informed of the desire of the 
State of Alabama to have the line run. And, for this rea- 
son alone, did the United States object to take any agency 
in the work. It is true they assigned the additional one of 
the United States being mider no obligation to do so by the 
articles of agreement and cession, as the Legislatnres of 
Georgia and Alabama had believed. Those Legislatnres 
were mistaken ; but the United States were, nevertheless, 
bound by considerations of interest to see that the line, 
when run, was truly run and marked. The country coter- 
minous with that of Georgia, belongs, as yet, to the United 
States, and not to Alabama; and, when looking to the ul- 
timate interests of Alabama, we invited her, in the spirit of 
sisterly affection, to unite and co-operate with us, it w^as not 
expected that the principal obstacle to the execution of the 
work w^ould be found in the denial by the government of 
the United States that Alabama wished it, especially when 
it was known here, that, so long ago as January, 1823, the 
Legislature of Alabama had come to resolutions expressive 
of their utmost solicitude that the line should be speedily 
run, and that copies of the same should be transmitted by 
the Governor, without delay, to the President of the United 
States and to the Governor of Georgia. A copy having 
been received in duo time at this department, it was pre- 
sumed that one had also been received by the Executive of 
the United States. It was not for the Governor of Georgia 
to inquire whether, in conformity v\'ith the requisitions of 
the resolutions, a copy had been forwarded to the President 
of the United States, or whether, if forwarded, it had been 
received. It is sufficient that the United States govern- 
ment may now know that the assent of Alabama to the 
running of the line is not w^anting ; and it only remains for 
me to assure the Legislature, that, v^henever it becomes 
necessary to the interest of the State to cause the line to be 
run, such measures as they think proper to adopt, will be 
carried into execution effectually and without delay. The 
State of Alabama will, of course, be invited to concur, and 
both wnll consider it due to the United States to give them 
timely notice. The correspondence on this subject with the 
government of the United States and that of Alabama, is 
submitted. 

' It is with great reluctance I feel myself constrained to call 
your attention to the general relations between the Federal 
and State governments. These relations, instead of being 
fixed and permanent as the Constitution itself, are changing 



238 LIFE OF GEGKGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IX. 

every day, altliougli tlie instrument whicli defines tliem 
does^not change. There is in all political bodies, however 
organized, an instinctive passion for the accumulation of 
power. Those of the United States have not been back- 
ward in exhibiting this trait, and, as this, like most other 
strong passions, acquires strength by indulgence, it is not a 
subject of wonder that at this day it should be displayed 
witii a force and effect calculated to awaken the most fear- 
ful apprehensions. Under its impulses, if not restrained, 
the States will be ultimately stripped of the powers once 
considered essential to their sovereignty, and be doomed to 
move in the humble and subordinate spheres of corpora- 
tions merely municipal. Without referring to the series of 
measures which (derived by latitude of construction,) have 
had a tendency to weaken the powers of the States, and to 
strengthen those of the general government, it will be suf- 
ficient to advert to those of more recent occurrence, because 
of more alarming character. They are the attempted re- 
strictions upon the State of Missouri as conditions of her 
admission into the Union — the repeated and partially suc- 
cessful assertion of absolute and uncontrollable power over 
Internal Improvement, — 'and, lastly, but least to be ex- 
pected, the bold assumption of the power to regulate, at 
pleasure, by duties, restraints and prohibitions, the entire 
industry of the country, and eventually, of course, to pre- 
scribe the direction which the labor of every man shall 
take, Avhatever be his own natural inclination or propensity. 
It was confidently believed, before, that if there was any 
one political feeling cherished by the people of the United 
States more universally than another, it was that the free- 
dom of industry, that is to say, the right of every man to 
betake himself to any honest employment whatever, as 
best suited his inclinations or interest, was absolutely se- 
cured against the possibility of encroachment from any 
quarter. The confiding American people no more thought 
of guarding this right of freedom of industry against the 
invasion of their representatives, than of prohibiting them 
from contaminating the purity of the atmosphere they 
breathed, or poisoning the fountains of water from which 
they drank. Nevertheless, this sacred right, derived imme- 
diately from Deity, and whicli no human institutions could 
take away, did not present even an impediment to the giant 
strides of the Federal Government. In thus defying nature 
and transcending the limits of the Constitution, what apol- 
ogy could be found for poor, frail, misguided man, but the 
one which the advocates of this system have sought for 



Chap, IX.] HIS FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 239 

tliemselves — a refuge in the exploded doctrines of the 
sixteenth century — a refuge, indeed, because covered with a 
veil of thick darkness^ But, to our shame be it written, 
the descendants of the very people of Europe who were 
enchained for ages by this system, rise up in our day, with 
uplifted hands and voices against it. It is this, say they, 
which confined our fathers to their work -shops — which cut 
off all intercourse between man and man, by which intel- 
lect could be improved — which made the son to tread in the 
footsteps of the father — and which left him no ideas, no 
sentiments, no feelings, but what belonged to his family and 
to his trade. The American Congress, who ought to be in 
the van of everything liberal in politics, in commerce and 
in the arts, go back to this era to seek lessons of instruction 
for their constituents. As Providence will have it, these 
constituents are three hundred years in advance of them ; 
and, unless they give lessons to their representatives in turn, 
they will find the general government very soon employed 
in making roads and digging canals within their own exclu- 
sive limits and jurisdiction — levying taxes on one portion 
of the community for the single purpose of giving en- 
couragement to the industry of another portion of the 
same community, and finally passing an act of universal 
emancipation, which would undoubtedly be the last. If 
the Legislature of a State should resolve to resist such as- 
sumed powers, the United States government would be 
reduced to the unpleasant alternative, either of enforcing 
them because they were clear, manifest and explicit ones, 
or of revoking them, as of equivocal and doubtful character, 
and not justifying a recourse to civil war to maintain them. 
And it would seem that this single consideration would be 
sufficient to deter any wise and prudent administration of 
government, under our constitution, from acting upon such 
constructive powers at all. 

I recommend to you to avoid the unnecessary multiplica- 
tion of laws, as well as their frequent alteration and amend- 
ment. In framing such as are necessary, too much caution 
cannot be observed. Discourage divorces,* seldom credita- 
ble either to those who ask, or to those who grant them, 
and always indicating a depraved state of society. Give 
the more important elections to the people, and confide to 
others the less. Duties ought never to be required of them, 

* When wiU this stain upon the Statute-Book of Georgia— granting divorces for 
causes not -warranted by the law of God, or agreeable to any enlightened system of 
morals— bo wiped out once and forever?— Ed. 



240 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IS. 

wliicli they are unable or unwilling to perform. If the 
people desire to retain the inferior and less important elec- 
tions, undoubtedly their wishes ought to be consulted. It 
is believ^ed they do not. Of this, however, you are the 
best judges. The election by the people should be real, not 
nominal. They should have motives sufficiently propulsive 
to turn out in their strength, whenever the laws require it. 
It is believed that the civil and military elections which 
devolve upon the people, would, if they were compelled to 
attend them, stop the plough one-fourth part of the year, 
bring great distress on families of the poorer class, and 
subtract in the same proportion from the product of the 
national industry. Our political morality will never be 
pure as long as offices are sought with the avidity and im- 
portunity which now distinguish the canvass for them in all 
the States with the exception of I^ew England. Whenever 
it is believed by the people, that those who seek office with 
the most eagerness are frequently the most unworthy, the 
evil will have found its remedy. Merit is always conspicu- 
ous enough, and our people will be sufficiently enlightened 
to discover and appreciate it. The nomination, therefore, 
as well as the election of the candidate, ought to belong to 
them. The American historian will blush to record the 
scenes in which, within the passing year, candidates for the 
first dignity ''''have not disdained to be actors. A practice, 
ripened into custom among a whole people, though proved 
to be a bad one, is uot easily changed or discontinued. It 
is known that this must be the work of time, and of the 
intelligence and virtue of the people themselves. "Whilst 
I am disposed to respect, as I ought, long established habits 
and opinions, I would reproach myself were I to withhold 
a single sentiment, the expression of which it was believed 
the interest or honor of the country required. 

It will be your duty, under the constitution and laws, to 
proceed at an early day to the election of nine Electors of 
President and Yice President ; and, during the session, to 
the election of a Senator f of the United States to succeed 
the Hon. John Elliott, whose term of service expires on the 

* The reference is to the Presidential election of that year, — ^Mr. Adams, Mr. Clay, 
Mr. Crawford and Gen. Jackson having been the candidates; the result of which was the 
election, in February, 1S25, of Mr. Adams, by the House of Representatives, although he had 
not received a plurality of votes in the Electoral Colleges. Few, if any, ever supposed he 
was the choice of the people. — ^Ed. 

t Hon. John M. Berrien was elected, without opposition, to succeed Mr. Elliott, and 
Hon. Thomas AY. Cobb in place of Mr. Ware. Mr. Cobb having resigned his seat in the U. 
S. House of Representatives, Hon. R. H. Wilde was elected in his place, on 13th December, 
1S24.— Ed. 



Chap. IX.] HIS FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 241 

third of Marcli next — also a Senator to fill the vacancy 
occasioned by the death of the Hon. Nicholas Ware, and 
three Brigadier Generals, viz : for the first brigade of the 
second division, vice Thomas Glascock, resigned — for the 
second brigade of the second division, vice John Inyin, 
deceased — and for the second brigade of the third division, 
vice Elias Beall, removed. 

The clanses in the public acts, which authorize free 
persons of color to be sold into slavery,* ought to be ex- 
punged from them, as repugnant to the constitution and the 
laws of God. 

The report of the Treasurer will exhibit the state of our 
finances. The aggregate of sales of the last fractions 
amounted to $262,325,25. The commissioners who super- 
intended them, deserve well for the assiduity, fidelity and 
integrity with which they discharged the laborious duties. 

A statement of the votes taken at the late general elec- 
tion, in conformity with a resolution of the Legislature, 
with a view of ascertaining the popular will in relation to 
the mode of choosing Electors of President and Yice Pres- 
ident, is submitted ; from which it appears that a preference 
has been given to that by popular election, and by a large 
majority.f 

[These three paragraphs of the message, being of local 
or temporary interest, are omitted.] 

A resolution of the Legislature of Ohio, is submitted, 
recommending the abolition of slavery. Whilst it aflords 
evidence that our sister has not interests of her own to 
occupy her, and that she manifests very tender concern for 
ours, we cannot forbear saying that our property will be 
safe in our own keeping for the present. It is mortifying 
that our rights of private property should, in violation of 
every sentiment of delicacy and propriety, be canvassed 
and passed upon by strangers of every description, and in 
every possible form of combination and conspiracy. We 
must arrest this nuisance, or throw it back upon the ag- 
gressors. That self-created societies, prompted by false 
conceits of philanthropy and benevolence, should ofii- 
cially intermeddle in a matter which it is impossible for 
them to comprehend because of the dense atmosphere of 
prejudice which surrounds them, would be unpardonable, 

* A repeal took place, accordingly, on 20th December.— Ed. 

f An act was passed on 18th December, giving this election to the people; and this 
mode of choosing the Electors of President and Vice President has been ever since con- 
tinued. — Ed. 

31 



242 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IS. 

if it were not known that, upon certain subjects and. in the 
most enlightened communities, there are to be foimd the 
j^Teatest enthusiasts and fanatics. But that the enlightened 
State of Ohio should assume the prerogative of dictating to 
Georgia what disposition she shall make of her own domes- 
tic property, is passing strange. Georgia has never at- 
tempted to interfere, directly or indirectly, with the internal 
polity, local institutions, or rights of property of any of the 
States, and it was hoped that the same delicacy and for- 
bearance w^onld have distinguished the conduct of other 
States in relation to herself The respectable State of Ohio 
ought to remember that there may be some things, con- 
nected with her own institutions and manners, not very 
agreeable to the people of Georgia, and that the work of 
retaliation is always an easy one. She must learn, too, 
that the question which slie has taken the liberty to pre- 
sent to the Legislature of Georgia, is one which Georgia 
will never permit herself to receive at the hands of strangers 
— that she will make it for herself whenever it may be 
proper to make it at all, and exactly at the time and after 
the manner she shall- deem best ; and, repulsing all foreign 
interference as obtrusive, will take to herself exclusively 
the good' and the merit, as she will certainly be obliged to 
take the evil, which may come of it. Our sister of Ohio 
will understand, for the future, that this is a subject sui 
generis, which only ourselves can comprehend ; that the 
efforts of others to better the condition of the negro have 
invariably made it worse, and that the negro has never yet 
found a sincere friend but his master. 

I lay before the Legislature, at the same time, sundry 
other resolutions of the States of Ohio, Massachusetts, 
Maine, New York and Mississippi. 

The returns of the different Banks in which the State has 
an interest, are submitted. Two of them have not been 
made in conformity with the terms of the resolution of the 
last session, and have been so notified. All of them should 
resume specie payments without delay. Whatever may be 
the state of debit and credit in the course of trade between 
this and other States, producing an unfavorable rate of ex- 
change, that exchange will always be augmented in pro- 
portion to the real or supposed depreciation of our paper. 
And if there exists no cause for the real, the Bank should 
furnish no pretence for a constructive, depreciation — a 
consequence inevitable from a failure to pay in specie, and 
which will be a clear subtraction from the wealth of Geor- 
gia, to the amount of that depreciation. 



Chap. IX.] HIS FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 243 

Finally, I recommend to yon to bring to the considera- 
tion of the subjects submitted, calmness of temper, and 
more especially a kindly feeling and forbearance towards 
each other ; so that, from the measures which follow, we 
may be able to render an account of our stewardship, 
creditable, if not to our understandings, at least to our 
hearts. Unless I deceive myself, you may safely count on 
similar feelings predominating here ; and if, from this con- 
cert and concurrence, benefits do not ensue, it will be more 
our misfortune than our fault. Whatever of error or omis- 
sion may result, good intention and the love of country will 
atone for. You will see, indeed, indications of unpleasant 
feelings, the offspring of our controversy with the United 
States. Entertaining, we are bound in honesty to express, 
them. The highest considerations and the warmest sym- 
pathies attract us to the great centre of our social system. 
That centre, however, must revolve on its axis, in the place 
assigned to it. The primar}'' and secondary bodies must 
move, each in its own orbit. It is our duty, in keeping the 
even tenor of ours, to contribute to the order and harmony 
of the whole, and this duty we will endeavor to fulfil. 
That no baleful comet may, in its irregular course, strike 
one of them from its place, and, deranging the system, 
bring all back to chaos and confusion, is the fervent prayer 
of your fellow-citizen, 

G. M. Tkoup. 



The Eepresentatives from Georgia, elected to Congress, 
this year, were John Forsyth, Edward F. Tattnall, George 
Gary, Wiley Thompson, Alfred Cuthbert, James Meri- 
wether,- Charles E. Ilaynes — the two last in place of Mr. 
Cobb and Mr. Abbott, who declined being candidates for 
re-election. 

A committee of the Senate, to whom had been referred 
so much of the Governor's Message as related to the Ohio 
resolution on the subject of slavery, made a report, which 
passed both houses, and was approved by the Governor on 
the 7th December. In their report, the committee, amongst 
other things, said : 

"While your committee contemplate, with no ordinary 
emotions, the ameliorated condition of the slave in the 

* Appointed 16th July, lS2i, with Duncan G. Campbell, to treat with the Creeks.— Ed. 



244 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IX. 

Southern country, they view with regret this unnecessary 
interference on the part of a sister State, so well calculated 
to excite the anticipations and hopes of the slave, and impel 
him to those acts, which, instead of bettering his condition, 
must augment his misfortunes. Your committee, therefoi-e, 
consider the resolution as violative of the true dictates of 
humanity ; and this idea is supported by a contrast of the 
slave population of the South, with the wretched and miser- 
able condition of the free people of color Mdio crowd the 
houses of punishment and correction in some of our sister 
States. If, in the South, they do not revel in liberty, they 
are at least supplied with the necessary wants of life." 

A resolution, appended to the report, disapproved the 
Ohio resolution, and requested the Governor to transmit a 
copy of the Georgia resolution to the Governor of each of 
the States, 

Resolutions were passed, at the same session, authorizing 
and requesting the Governor to receive General La Fayette, 
" in such manner as, in his judgment, may evince the grati- 
tude of the people of this State for his distinguished ser- 
vices," and authorizing the Governor to draw on the 
contingent fund for such sums of money as might be neces- 
sary to carry into effect the resolution for reception. 

During the session of 1823, a bill was passed to alter and 
amend the second section of the second article of the Con- 
stitution of the State, so as to make the Governor elective 
by the people. In 1824, it was again passed by a constitu- 
tional majority, in both Houses, and was approved by the 
Governor. In the Senate, there were only iiine votes against 
it — in the House, ten. 

[1 821.] In his annual message of 7th December, the 
President announced to Congress that Commissioners had 
been appointed, and negotiations for a treaty with the 
Creek Indians were then pending. The Commissioners 
appointed on the part of the United States, were Duncan 
G. Campbell and James Meriw^ether, of Georgia. 

The Governor sent in the following message to the Legis- 
lature : 



Chap. IX.] THE INDIAN CONTROVERSY. 245 

Executive Departiment, Georgia, | 
Ililledgeville, 11 th Dec, 1824. j 

As a reasonable expectation ought to Le indulged that 
the treaty now holding with the Creeks, after the negotia- 
tion has been thus far protracted, will terminate in a 
further acquisition of territory, I recommend to yon, before 
your adjournment to pass a provisional resolution, requiring 
the Governor, in such event, to convene the Legislature, 
and at such season as may best comport with your conveni- 
ence. 

G. M. Tkoup. 

Each House, therefore, passed a resolution for the calling 
of an extra session in May following. 

The preliminaries, for a treaty, to which the Governor 
referred, were then being carried on at a place called 
Thle-cath-ca, or Broken Arrow, on the Chattahoochee ; but 
these negotiations, which were begun early in December, 
failed, as will be seen in the sequel. Pending the negoti- 
ation. Gov. Troup addressed to the Commissioners, the fol- 
lowing letter : 

Executive Department, Georgia, ] 
MiUedgeviUe, 9tk D'ec, 1824. ' f 
Gentlemen : — The Legislature will probably adjourn 
about the 18th instant ; and, as much anxiety is manifested 
to know whether you have any prospects of concluding a 
treaty, I have sent an express, that this letter may be safely 
delivered into your own hands. If there are no prospects of 
bringing your mission to a favorable termination, be so good 
as to apprise me of the obstacles you have had to encoun- 
ter. If you found yourselves anticipated and forestalled by 
the Indian Council held in the Spring, of which we received 
the first notice, recently, through an Alabama print, inform 
me, if you please, by what authority that council was held ? 
— whether with the knowledge, countenance or encourage- 
ment of the Agent ?" Was the Agent present at that 
council, and what part did he take ? Who drew up their 
state paper ? Were the proceedings of that council made 
known by the Agent to his government, without delay, and 
was it with a knowledge of these proceedings that you were 
appointed ? Were any allusions made to tliem in your in- 
structions ? You will pardon the trouble I give you. There 

* John Crowell, appointed Agent to the Greet Indians early in 1821, in place of Gen. 
D. B. Mitchell.— Ed. 



246 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IX. 

is no absolute riglit, on my part, to propound these ques- 
tions ; no obliejation on yours to answer them. Neverthe- 
less, yon are citizens of Georgia, and, if your negotiations 
fail, you will see how necessary for me to receive true and 
correct answers to these questions, from such authority as 
will enable me to use them in vindication of our rights, to 
the best advantage. You will not infer, from any of' them, 
that hasty inferences have been indulged to the prejudice 
of the government of the United States. Hope is still en- 
tertained that all will be right ; and in no event will anything 
besought to inculpate the government of the United States, 
but strict matter of fact. 

With great consideration and respect, 

G. M. Tkoup. 

The Commissioners, in their reply of the 14th December, 
said : " We are not without our difficulties in determining 
what shall be our answer to the several inquiries which you 
have propounded. These do not arise, however, from any 
reluctance to make to you a full disclosure of our proceed- 
ings,, and the obstacles which we have had to encounter, 
but from an apprehension that, by such commvmication, we 
might, /br the ])resent^ weaken the means of which we hope 
successfully to avail ourselves." And again : " The pro- 
ceedings which you have seen published, as occurring at 
Tuckabatchee and Pole Cat Springs, were evidently intend- 
ed to forestall us. They have, in a great measure, had the 
effect, by spreading alarm throughout the nation, by the 
miserable farrago of threats which they contain. For some 
time past, the Cherokees have exerted a steady and officious 
interference in the affairs of this tribe. That this has de- 
rived additional impulse, and that we are now encountering 
a daily interference, most active and insidious, we have no 
doabt." 

Anticipating our narrative a little, it may be proper here 
to state that on the 11th January, 1825, after the failure at 
Broken Arrow, Col. Campbell, one of the commissioners, 
submitted to the Secretary of War the following proposi- 
tion : " The facts, heretofore disclosed, show a willingness, 
on the part of the Indians within the Georgia limits, to cede 



I 



Chap. IX.] THE INDIAN CONTROVERSY. 24? 

tlieir territory, and to emigrate; but insurmountable ob- 
stacles present themselves to the acceptance of a treaty 
thus concluded. It is now proposed to re-assemble the 
Chiefs of the whole Nation ; to renew the offers al- 
ready made ; to obtain the entire Creek country, if prac- 
ticable ; but, if this cannot be effected, then to accept a 
treaty signed by the Chiefs within the limits of Georgia, 
provided such treaty be accompanied by the assent of the 
other Chiefs, that the land to be abandoned by the emigra- 
ting party shall be immediately subject to the disposition 
of the Government." In his reply, of ISth January, the 
Secretary of War, after stating that the President had 
" deliberately considered" a former " proposition submit- 
ted by the commissioners to treat with the Creeks, of 
holding a separate treaty with Gen. Mcintosh," &c., &c., 
and that the President's opinion was "that he cannot, with 
propriety, authorize the treating with Gen. Mcintosh alone, 
as proposed by the Commissioners," &c., &c,, yet added : 
"the President can see no objection to a renewal of the 
negotiation, as proposed in your letter of 11th instant, in 
order to obtain an arrangement with Gen. Mcintosh, with 
the consent of the nation, for the cession of the country in 
question ; and you are, accordingly, in conjunction with 
Major Meriwether, as commissioners, authorized to renew 
the negotiation. You will, however, distinctly perceive, 
in the remarks which have been made, that, whatever ar- 
rangement may be made with Gen. Mcintosh, for a cession 
of territory, must be made by the Creek nation, in the usual 
form, and upon the ordinary principles with which treaties 
are held with the Indian tribes." 

The Legislature of 1S23 having appointed the late Hon. 
William Schley '" " to compile and digest the statute laws 
of England " then " of force in the State of Georgia," and 
having authorized the Governor to have the same " exam- 

* This gentleman is well and honorably remembered as having been afterwards Judge 
of the Superior Courts of the Middle Circuit, a Representative in Congress, and Governor of 
Georgia from 1S35 to 1S37. He died at Augusta, on 20th November, 1S58, much esteemed by 
all who knew him. — Ed. 



248 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IX. 

ined by a committee of three learned in the law," after 
which he was to " approve or disapprove of the same," 
Governor Troup appointed, as that committee, Messrs. 
Charles Harris, William Davies and Thomas TJ. P. Charlton. 
In 1826, the work was approved by the Governor, and it has 
since been known to the legal profession and the public as 
" Schley's Digest." The following is his letter to Judge 
Charlton on the subject. It will be seen that he indulges 
in some pleasantry in regard to the compensation which he 
was authorized to make to the committee for their services. 

Vai>dosta, Laurens, 12th April, 1821. 

Sir : I received your letter, yesterday, on the subject of 
a Compilation and JDigest of the Statute Law of England 
in force in this State, and concur entirely in the views you 
have taken of it. 

I can easily conceive that the work may be either worth- 
less or highly valuable. The competency of the hands to 
which its execution has been confided, is ample security 
that the latter result will be attained. There can be no 
doubt of the extent of your powers over it — to approve or 
disapprove are terms equally applicable to every part as 
to the whole ; and, as the greater power is always construed 
to include the lesser, you are, of course, invested with that 
of revision and correction ; and tliis is in perfect consonance 
with what I understand to be Mr. Schley's own views of 
your several duties under the resolution ; so that you can- 
not fail to move harmoniously in the execution of the work, 
and make it in the end what you desire it should be. 

As to the compensation for your services, all I can say at 
present, is, that 1 will endeavor to be as liberal as possible ; 
but, if in attempting what I wish in this respect, my courage 
should fail me, I would turn you over to the Legislature, 
backed by as strong a recommendation as any Governor, 
elected by the Legislature, dare. 

This letter is iuten led as well for Messrs. Harris and 
Davies as for yourself. 

Respectfully vours, G. M. Tkoup. 

Thomas U. P. Charlton, Esq., 
Savannah. 



Before proceeding, as we shall in the next and succeed- 
ing chapters, to give a somewhat detailed account of the 



Chap. IX.] CHARGES AGAINST COL. CROWELL. ^-^Q 

Creek cortroversy, it is. proper to make referaice to the 
relations subsisting between the Ex€>cntive of Georgia and 
Col. Crovv4l, whose appointment as Indian Agert has been 
already noliced ; and, the more espt^,cially, as tb> inqviiries 
in Gov. Tr(up's letter of 9th December, lS2-i, U the U. S. 
Commissioiers, implied doubt of the Agent's fidelity to the 
interests ofGeorgia ; and the following extracts ;)f a letter 
from tl Tovernor to the Fresideijt — containing serious 
charges against the Agent — will be f f>und so freqiently re- 
ferred to hereafter, as to. make it ilmost necesary that 
portiois of it be inserted here. : 

On ',he 3d of March, 1817, the eas'ern part of the Mis- 
sissipi-i Territory was, by act of Cong.-ess, made a separate 
"^ ^ory, called Alabama ; and on the 16th day of ISToveni- 
818, Col. John Crowell took his t;eat in the House of 
R . sentatives, at Washington, as its Delegate. On the 
14tli December, 1819, Alabama was^ admitted into the 
Union ; and, as already seen. Col. O.-owell was, early in 
1821, a] M)inted Agent to the Creek Indians. 

On theSth of January, 1821, Rev. William Capers, as 
Superinteadent of the Creek Indian Mission, and Ghairmin 
of the Missionary Committee of the South Carolina Con- 
ference, aadressed a long letter (verified by afiidavit) to 
the Secretai-y of War, complaining of the x\gent, charging 
that he codd not do justi<je where religion was concerned ; 
that he w^as believed to hn an enemy tothe Gospel, abusing 
his authority and his influence to oppugn it, (fee. This 
letter was 'landed to Governor Troup, for transmiss'*'^" to 
Washington ; and, in forwarding it to "he Secretary of War, 
the Governor wrote as follows : 

MiLLEDCvEViLLE, 16th January, 18|21- 
Sir : In submitting to you a complaiiH against an (j'fiicer 
under your authority, it will not be und(irstood tliat 1 1 am 
actuated by any other motive than the desire of mak:id^ .you 
intimately acquainted with a man who Vs^Duld seem so' far to 
be an utter stranger to you. You will .-^e, in the si^q^el, 
dark and mysterious thing- unveiled, anl upon such liig^i 
authoriry that no man dare to shut his '^yes against them. 
The naked statement which I make, will pass for nVjthing 
32 ' 



250 H' v.tMii.iTt; jI. THOIT':'. [Chap. IX. 

— -it is SO jUeriaf,M .-• ^ ■ the sacrod and so'emu i peal which 

I know h;,s proceded it, will make an instan meous and 
lasting inpressioQ. It comes from a sacred S( n-ce, where 
piety anddevotion unite with patriotism to b ng cnlprits 
of every lind to insUcc 

You art no' stranger to the virtues of Mr. (apers, who, 
t)iending the finest talents and accoihplishmeits with no 
ordinary tloqueuce, sttinds first among Christiin ministers 
iu this Soitheni country- I have said to him, tl."*" his oath, 
which hehas tendere<? in support of his mem. J., is no 
hetter thm his word, '''!id that yon will so considerl.it; so 
of the re",t — ^he is the voucher for them all, and abetter 
you cannot ha\f;'. ''^' " '"' 

Mr. CrDwell, tli-. .A~^ut, not being an inhabitant of the 
State of (xeorgia, bu: ''-'i officer of the United State? aban- 
doning hs station, did, for political purposes, repair^fe^ che 
seat of governraoTit of Georgia, with the sole vie.?' ''' 
intent to"^ use his '.utii'''iice in behalf of one of the candi 
;'.^ thy late election f->'' 'jrovernor, and did so use it le 
Piost open, public, a::d grossly indelicate manner,' iJius 
intermeddling in the political affairs of a State to which he 
ought to have been -^^ he was, in fact, a stranger and an 
alien; and thus rv j omitting the Governmeix, whose 
cigent he was, in ■ ' < ~'V in which the highest it.terests of 
the States were in . ^ '■■''■', no less interests than the freedom 
and independence "^' ^he elective franchise. 
Yerv r, - ^j' ifuliy, &c., &c., 

G. AL Tkoup. 
TheTIcn. J", a ^^r !■<:'•■• 
S'jcretary >i \ ^^" 

To these things, Col Crowell replied, on 1 Jth March, 
denyioo- what he '■'i''lled "the unfounded ani frivolous 
charges" of Mr. Oaper-:;, and retorting upon tlse Governor 
with iijorisiderablo acrimony. In noticing the charge of in- 
torferin^V with t'u political afi'airs of Georgia, be said: 

" That I am jo inhabitant of Georgia, is not correct ; the 
seat of ].ny agt-ncv beiag within the chartered limits of that 
State. That I aiii a'l v)tficer of the United States, is true ; 
but t ha-t I, in a 'grosniy indelicate manner,' opposed his 
electi(on , I deny. That I openly and boldly did s;o, I admit. 
In doing this, I may h;>vo acted imprudently, by provoking 
his reir,entment-: bit h(vr my doing this could compromit 
the Gij.vernrA' ' ^.gentlam,in relation to the free 



Chap. IX.] KELATION OF THE CREEKS. 251 

and independent exercise of the elective franchise, in Geor- 
gia, I confess I have yet to learn. * * There 
is, certainly, then, no express or implied incon^patibility 
between the office of" Indian Agent and that of opposer to 
Governor Troup, in his canvass for public suffrage." 

In answer to the letter of Mr. Capers, the Secretary of 
War, under date of 30th March, said : 

" The President regrets that there should be any mis- 
understanding between yourself, and the society of which 
you are a member, and the Agent. But, after a careful 
examination of the charges, and the reply, he is of opinion 
that there is no fMindation on which to take any measure 
against him, particuhirly, as his general conduct, in the 
discharge of his official duties, has been marked by prompt- 
itude and accuracy, as far as they have come within the 
knowledge of the Department," &c. 

And, in writing to the Agent, on the same day, the Secre- 
tary of War said : " You will give a decided countenance 
and support to the Methodist Mission, as well as to any other 
society that may choose to direct its efforts to improve the 
condition of the Creek Indians," &c., &c. 

As introductory to what follows in succeeding chapters, 
it is proper to present a concise view of the relations exist- 
ing between the Creek nation of Indians and the United 
States, for some time before and at the conclusion of the 
treaty of the Indian Springs, in February, 1825. 

On the 30th of August, 1813, occurred the terrible mas- 
sacre at Fort Minis on the Ahabama river. The attacking 
party was led by the celebrated Weatherford, instigated by 
British agents. Even before this time, the. Creeks were 
divided into two parties — the peace party, or Friendly In- 
dians, supported by Mcintosh and his friends — and the war 
party, or Ited Sticks, so called from the painted color of 
their war clubs. The former — sometimes called Lower 
Creeks — resided almost wholly in Georgia ; the latter — or 
Upper Creeks — lived almost, if not altogether, in Alabama. 
The war which ensued between the Red Sticks and the 
United States, and the victories gained by Gen. Floyd, of 
Georgia, Gen. Andrew Jackson and others, over these 
hostile Indians, find their appropriate place in the general 



252 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. IX. 

histor/ of the country. Yanqiiislied in battle, and broken 
in spirit, the hostile Creeks yielded in 1814, and the treaty 
of Fort Jackson, already noticed, was the result. The war 
party ^re a conquered people ; and yet they were after- 
wardf^ the almost unyielding enemies of the Georgians and 
Ala'bamians. 

The brave Mcintosh was ever the friend of Georgia and 
the Union. In the subsequent war with the Seminoles of 
Florida, who were aided and encouraged by some of the 
Eed Sticks, Mcintosh commanded a brigade of Friendly 
Creeks, and did effective service against the Seminoles and 
their allies. 

From a report made by Joseph V. Bevan, Esq., in 
October, 1825, to Governor Troup, by appointment of the 
Legislature, we make the following extract. Referring to 
a difficulty between the Indian Agent and Mcintosh, in 
1824-, Mr. Bevan said : 

Somewhat before this period, Mcintosh proposed, in a 
Council of the Cherokees, that they, the Creeks, the Chick- 
asaws and Choctaws, should emigrate westward of the 
Mississippi ; and there that these four nations of Southern 
Indians should form one consolidated government. It is 
needless to say that these propositions were rejected — this 
was not all : Mcintosh, (who had been constituted a Cher- 
okee Chief, in consequence of intermarriage with one of 
their women.) was degraded, and denounced to his own 
countrymen as an enemy to the Red People. Tliese senti- 
ments were speedily adopted by the Big Warrior,* who 
assembled a .few of the Upper Creek Chiefs at the Pole 
Cat Springs, where, with the assistance of his son-in-lavv^, 
(who was also sub-agent under Col. Crowell,) those cele- 
brated resolutions were passed, which are now held to 
justify the murder of all those v\^ho signed the treaty. It 
was then that parties began really to be distinguished ; the 
Upper Creeks or Alahama Indians inclining to the Cher- 
okee talks ; the Lower Creeks, or Georgia Indians, to those 
of Mcintosh : and it was in this state of things, that Mc- 
intosh came to the determination that he would conclude 



* This Chief, although not cue of the Red Sticks, belonged to the Upper Towns. He died 
at Washington city on the 8th of March, 1S25.— Ed. 



Chap. IX.] MR. BEVAN'S REPORT. 253 

the treaty, (as he and the Little Prince *had done but four 
years before,) without waiting for the consent of tliose 
Towns situated on the waters of the Coosa and Tallapoosa. 
To this measure, it appears that he was strongly influenced 
by three considerations: 

' 1. That the CowetuhTowns,beiugtheoldestin the nation, 
were at one time sole owners of the country, and, as such, 
by the custom of the nation, have absolute authority with 
regard to the disposition of land. 

2. At all events, that each town, retaining its original 
rights with regard to territory, inviolate, and having never 
surrendered them, (such as they were,) to the National 
Council, had full authority to dispose of its own domain. 

3. That the Upper Towns had forfeited their rights, if 
they ever had any, by their treason during the war ; which 
had caused the cession or surrender of all the lands men- 
tioned in the treaty at Fort Jackson. 

There are also three important facts belonging to the 
history of this transaction, which it would be as well to take 
along with you : 

1. That the few friendly Indians among the Upper 
Creeks, during the late war, were either in the power or 
possession of the hostiles, until relieved by Mcintosh and 
his Cowetas. 

2. That neither the Big Warrior, the celebrated Ilojyo- 
ithle Yoholo, nor any other Chief of the Upper Creek 
Nation, signed the treaty of 1821 — a treaty whose validity 
has never been questioned. 

3. That at the treaty held by Messrs. Campbell and 
Meriwether, the Cussetuhs had already talvcn the tallc of 
the Commissioners, before their departure overnight, which, 
being the Indian mode of accepting a proposition, was held 
by Mcintosh as sufficient to justify its formal conclusion 
accDrding to themode of the white people, without obliging 
all his heathens to affix the signature of the cross. 

* Another celebrated Chief of the Upper Towns, and who was after, if not before, the 
death of Big Warrior, their head Chief, and who figures largely in subsequent transactions. 
His Indian name was Tustennuck Opoyow, or Tustunnuggeo Hopoie. He was, by some, re- 
garded as " Head Chief of the Nation." — Ed. 



254 I'IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 



CHAPTER X. 

Treaty concluded toitli the Crceh Indians. — Dlsturhances growing 
out of it. — 3Iurder of Mcintosh. — Governor's Reception of 
La Fayette. — Extra Session of tlie Legislature. — Governor's 
llessage. — His Recommendations. — Views on Slavery Question. 
— Proceedings of the Legislature. — Governor's Correspondence 
with the President, Gen. Gaines and others, begun, &c., &c. 



will appear by reference to the documents publisbed in this 
chapter. jSTegotiations were then transferred to the Indian 
Springs, after the following notification had been given to 
the Agent of Indian Affairs. 

Washington City, January 12, 1825. 

Sir : — The Commissioners on the part of the United States 
have come to the conclusion of assembling the Chiefs of the 
Creek nation, for the purpose of submitting to them mat- 
ters of importance to themselves and the Government. The 
day of convention will be the 7th of February next, Mon- 
day, at the Indian Springs. We are desirous that all the 
Chiefs of the nation should attend, who are in the habit of 
transacting public business, and of signing treaties. You 
will cause the enclosed invitation to be circulated, forthwith, 
among the chiefs, and broken days issued accordingly. On 
my return to Georgia, which Avill be in a few days, I shall 
probably have occasion to address you farther upon the 
subject of the negotiation. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

Duncan G. Campbell. 
Col. John Crowell, 

Agent Indian Affairs. 

The " invitation" or circular, dated the same day, and 
signed by Col. Campbell, in behalf of himself and the other 
Commissioner, addressed " to the Chiefs of the Creek Na- 
tion," was in the following words : 

"By the authority of the President of the United States, 
you are requested to convene at the Indian Springs, on 



Chap. X.] COUNCIL OF CREEK INDIANS. 255 

Monday, the Tth day of February next. Matters of great 
consequence to the Nation and the United States, will be 
laid before you. We shall expect all to be present, on the 
day appointed, who are in the habit of transacting the 
business of the Nation, and of signing treaties." 

On the Tth of February, the Commissioners met at the 
place appointed, but, as few of the Chiefs had arrived, no 
business was then done. The Agent was present, and on 
the same day addressed a note to the Commissioners, in 
which he said : " Having been informed by the War De- 
partment of the renewal of the negotiation with the Creek 
Indians, for a cession of land, and being instructed to obey 
your orders in relation to the negotiation, I now have the 
honor to inform you that I will, in compliance with my in- 
structions, obey such instructions as I may receive from you 
in the fulfilment of your duties under the instructions of 
the War Department, and cheerfully co-operate with you 
in bringing to a successful termination the present negoti- 
ation." 

On the 10th, the Commissioners finding that Chiefs and 
Head Men, to the number of nearly four hundred, had 
convened, a meeting was had, except with the Tuckabatchee 
Chiefs, who sent a message " that they were not ready, and 
were not disposed to meet in the room prepared for the 
council, but were disposed to hold meetings at their own 
camp." The Council, nevertheless, proceeded to business, 
and after "a long and friendly talk" by the Commissioners 
to the Chiefs, a treaty was concluded, and, after being dis- 
cussed and explained, was signed, on the 12th, [Feb., 1825,] 
'' by all the chiefs present, except the delegation from 
Tuckabatchee, and one chief from Talladega." In the 
mean time, however, a part of the Chiefs of two of the 
towns had left, mysteriously, and the only explanation of 
this movement, obtained at the time, was that the " order" 
for their departure was given by William Hambly, United 
States Interpreter, aided by the advice ofStedham, a Chief 
of one of the towns. 

It is not important, here, to particularize the terms of the 



256 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

treaty, except to state that, for a consideration named, the 
Creeks ceded to the United States "all the lands lying 
within the boundaries of the State of Georgia as defined by 
the compact" of 1802 between the United States and 
Georgia, in exchange for lands of " the like quantity, acre 
for acre, westward of the Mississippi ;" and that the period 
of their removal was not to " extend beyond the first day 
of September, in the year eighteen hundred and twenty- 
six." It is important to state that this treaty, signed by 
the United States Commissioners, by William Mcintosh, 
" Head Chief £)f Cowetaus," and fifty-one other Chiefs, was 
"executed on the day as above written, in ]}Tesence of 
John Crowel-l, Agent for Indian Affairs.'''' 

Whatever may have been the truth of the charges 
brought against this Agent, or the extent of his connection 
with the subsequent troubles in the Creek country, there is 
no doubt that, after having been thus present at the council 
and the execution of the treaty, and having signed his 
name as a witness to it, he wrote, the very next day, a letter 
to the Secretary of War, of which the following is an 
extract : 

" Yesterday a treaty was signed by Mcintosh, and his 
adherents, alone. Being fully convinced that this treaty is 
in direct opposition to the letter and spirit of the instruc- 
tions, which I have a cop}-- of, I feel it to be my bounden 
duty, as the agent of the government, to apprise you' of it, 
that you may adopt such measures as you may deem ex- 
pedient, as to the ratification ; for, if ratified, it may produce 
a horrid state of things among these unfortunate Indians. 
It is proper to remark that, with the exception of Mcintosh, 
and perhaps two others, the signatures to this treaty are 
either chiefs of low grade, or not chiefs at all ; which you 
can perceive, by comparing them to those to other treaties, 
and to the receipts for the annuity, and these signers are 
from eight towns only, when there are fifty-six in the 
nation." 

Now, assuming all these things to be true, the question 
is, why did not the Agent decline any participation in the 
business ? 

Col. Campbell, one of the Commissioners, wrote thus, to 
the Secretary of War, on 16th February : 



Chap. X.] TREATY WITH THE CREEK INDIANS. 257 

" On the loth instant, we had the honor of enclosiiif^ to 
you, from the Indian Springs, the copy of a treaty which 
had been concluded, the day previously, with the Creek 
nation of Indians. On Monday morning, the 14th, a sup- 
plemental article was added, which has exclusive relation 
to two reservations claimed by the Indian chief. General 
Mcintosh. I am gratified at the opportunity which I now 
make, of transmitting to the Department, by oar Secretary, 
Major Hay, the original treaty and the Commissioners' 
Journal. On reference to this last document, yo'a will 
discover under what circumstances the negotiation was 
renewed, and how it progressed and terminated. There is 
nothing of singular import in the whole proceeding, except 
the sudden and mysterious departure of the Cussetaus, at 
night, after solemn assent to a treaty. The explanation 
given to this movement, by the report of Col. Williamson,* 
at the conclusion of the Journal, I hope will be found sat- 
isfactory. The step was far from being voluntary. These 
chiefs, doubtless, were deluded by a wily and perfidious 
individual in the service of the government, as interpreter. 
His opposition to a treaty was notorious. His life and char- 
acter have been too much diversified, and too strongly 
marked, to make him a fit ofiicer of public trust. The 
attendance of the Chiefs was a full one ; much more so 
than is usual when Chiefs only are invited. The opposi- 
tion was feeble, and seems to have been dictated by the 
Big Warrior. The deathf of this Chief, I conceive, puts 
the question at rest. That all opposition will now cease, 
and that the dissenting party will now treat and reunite 
themselves with the majority, I have no doubt. To meet 
this expected contingency, a portion of the appropriation 
has been reserved." 

The foregoing extracts show the opinion of the Commis- 
sioners, or, at least, one of them, in regard to the fairness 
of the treaty ; but events were in progress of maturity and 
development, for which neither they nor the public were 
then prepared. 

Y/hatever may have been thought of the course of Presi- 
dent Monroe with reference to the recent demonstration of 

* This gentleman had been cmployod by the U. S. Commi,?3ioncr3 to ascertain the 
reason of the departure of certain Chiefs from the treaty ground; and it was upon infor- 
mation given him, that Hambly and Stedham were implicated.^ED. 

t It has been seen that he was not then dead. His Indian name? was Tu3tunnuKa;ee 
Thlucco.— Ed. 

3a 



258 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

the SO called " Cherokee delegation," he soon after signal- 
ized the close of his administration, in regard to the Indians, 
and especially those resident in Georgia, by an admirable 
message which he communicated to Congress on the 27th 
of January, 1825. We make the following extracts: 

"For the removal of the tribes within the limits of the 
State of Georgia, the motive has been peculiarly s'rong, 
arising from the compact with that State, whereby tliG 
United States are bound to extinguish the Indian title to 
the lands within it, whenever it may be done peaceably and 
on reasonable conditions. In the fulfilment of this com- 
pact, I have thought that the United States should act with 
a generous spirit, that they should omit nothing which 
should comport with a liberal construction of the instru- 
ment, and likewise be in accordance with the just rights of 
those tribes. From the view which I have taken of the 
subject, I am satisfied that, in the discharge of these im- 
portant duties, in regard to both the parties alluded to, the 
United States will have to encounter no conflicting inter- 
ests with either. On the contrary, that the removal of the 
tribes from the territory which they now inhabit, to that 
which was designated in the message at the commence- 
ment of the session, which would accomplish the object for 
Georgia, under a well-digested plan for their government 
and civilization, which should be agreeable to themselves, 
would not only shield them from impending ruin, but pro- 
mote their welfare and happiness. * "^ A 
negotiation is now depending with the Creek nation, for 
the cession of lands held by it within the limits of Georgia, 
and with a reasonable prospect of success. ^'' * To 
give eflfect to this negotiation, and to the negotiations 
which it is proposed to hold with all the other tribes within 
the limits of the several States and Territories, on the prin- 
ciples and for the purposes stated, it is recommended that 
an adequate appropriation be now made by Congress." 

The following is the Governor's letter to the Commis- 
sioners, on the subject of the message : 

Executive Department, Georgia, ] 
MilUdgemlle, Sth Feb., 1825. f 

Gentlemen : Within this hour, the mail has brought an 
important communication, made by the President to Con- 
gress, on the 27th ult., and connected with the objects of 
your commission. Fearing a copy may not have reached 
you, I hasten to forward, by express, a newspaper which 



Chap. X.] REPLY OF THE COMMISSIONERS. 269 

contains it. He can be with you early to-morrow morning. 
With consideration and respect, 

G. M. Tkoup. 
D. G-. Campbell, J. Meriwether, Esqrs., 

U. S. Commissioners for holding treaty with the Creeks, 
Indian Springs. 

The Commissioners replied, on the 0th, from Indian 
Springs : 

It affords iis much pleasure to acknowledge the receipt 
of yours of yesterday, enclosing a special message lately 
made by the President to the Senate of the United States. 
"We were aware that such communication was intended to 
be made, and had arranged for its transmission to this 
place. It had not arrived, however, which makes the 
arrival of your express the more acceptable. The Chiefs of 
the nation are coming in, in considerable numbers. We 
discover distinctly the decided hostility of a large deputa- 
tion from Tookaubatchee, but are of opinion that in council 
we have the ascendency in numbers and in grade. We 
cannot admit the possibility of defeat, yet such may be the 
result. Our expectations are founded upon facts which 
amount to strongest assurance of success, and we must in- 
dulge the gratification, tliat even " while Troup is Govern- 
or," ""■ the policy and obligations of the United States will 
be effected, and the rights of Georgia obtained. 

The Governor wrote again to the Commissioners : 

Executive Depaktment, Georgia, \ 
MilledgevilU, l^tJiFeb., 1825. j 

Gentlemen : Accept my thanks for your last letter by 
express. A dispatch from Mr. Forsyth has this moment 
reached me, and, believing it may be of service to you, I 
hasten, by another express, to place you in possession of it. 
Our delegation, as was expected, are resolved to do their 
duty ; it is known to me you will do yours to all parties, 
and I will endeavor not to be wanting in mine. There can 
be no doubt of the correctness of the suggestion of Mr. 
Forsyth, that a treaty concluded with that portion of the 
tribe resident in Georgia, for the cession of all the lands 
within our limits, would be approved by Congress. 

With great respect and consideration, 

G. M. Tkoup. 

* Referring to a remark attributed to the Agent, that " Georgia should get no land 
from the Indians while Troup was Crovernor ;" showing the suspicion of the Agent's hos - 
tility to the treaty oyen before it was signed. — Ed. 



260 I^IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

To wliicli tlie Commissioners replied : 

Indian Speings, Feb. 13tli, 1825. 
Sir : Your express has tliis moment readied us, and 
delivered your communication coverinjo; the proceedings of 
Congress upon the Indian question. We are happy to in- 
forni you that the "long agony is over," and that we 
concluded a treaty, yesterday, with what we consider the 
Nation^ for nearly the whole country. . We enclose you a 
copy, also dispatches for the Government. These last are 
addressed to your care, to secure their certain transmission 
by to-morrow's mail. The original Treaty will be conveyed 
by our Secretary, to Washington City, by the stage leaving 
Wilkes, on Thursday next. We are still in time for ratifi- 
cation by the present Senate, and beg to offer you our 
sincere gratulations upon the more than successful issue of 
a negotiation in which you have been an ardent co-worker. 
With great consideration and respect, 

Duncan G. Caiwpbell, 
James JVIektwetiiee. 
His Excellency G. M. Troup. 

Soon after the failure of negotiations at Broken Arrow, 
Gov. Troup had addressed a letter to the President, dated 
23d December, 1824, complaining of the conduct of the 
Agent, and in which, speaking of that conduct, he said : 
" you had timely and sufficient warning, by a communica- 
tion which I had occasion to make the Executive Govern- 
ment, some twelve months since, and which was answered 
by the confirmation of this same man in office."-'' 

Having received information of the signing of the treaty, 
Gov. Troup addressed the following letters to the Georgia 
delegation in Congress : 

Executive Department, Geokgia, \ 
Milledgeville, \Uh Feh., 1825. j' 
Gentlemen : From what I have learned, unofficially, of 
the late conduct of the Agent at the Indian Springs, his 
hostility to the interest of Georgia has suffered no abate- 
ment. I can by no means vouch for the accuracy of the 
reports connected with it. The Commissioners must know, 

* The sub-Agent, "Walker, was dismissed from his office, by the Secretary of War, in 
January, 1825, on the ground that, " so far from contributing to eifect the object of the 
government, your influence has been used in defeating the successful termination of the 
treaty." — Ed. 



Chap. X.] LETTERS TO THE GEORGIA DELEGATION. 261 

and, if founded in truth, you will be satisfied, that the 
Ao;ent will leave no efforts unessayed to detain the Creeks 
iti'their own country, to the last hour limited by the treaty, 
it he be longer continued in office. Mcintosh and all his 
people are willinp; to hurry away — the Agent can retard or 
detain them, by the multiplication of obstacles which will 
be insuperable to them. We are much concerned in their 
speedy removal. 

With great consideration and respect, 

G. M. Tkoup. 

Executive Department, Georgia, ] 
Milledgemlle, I'ith Feb., 1825. f 
Gentlemen : What was stated in my letter of the 15tli, 
in relation to the conduct of the Agent at the Indian 
Springs, as rumor, is confirmed as matter of fixct. Profess- 
ing good dispositions, and tendering hearty co-operation to 
the Commissioners, he was secretly engaged in under- 
mining them. The Chiefs were all, the Toohaubatchees 
excepted, ready to sign the treaty, and whilst the Commis- 
sioners were occupied in the prej)aration of it, the Agent 
ordered a portion of them to depart by night. When" the 
Commissioners, to their astonishment, discovered this seces- 
sion, they dispatched Col. Williamson in pursuit, and to 
advise them to return ; but their resolution was fixed, and, 
when it was ashed why they had thus precipitately turned 
their backs upon the Commissioners, on the very eve of the 
signature, their answer was, one and all, " by order of the 
Agent." You see, therefore, that but for this perfidious in- 
terference, the treaty would have been concluded by the 
entire nation, and with an unanimity almost unexampled. 
This last act of the Agent proves that he is yet animated 
by the same inveterate hostility to the interests of Georgia, 
which signalized his conduct and defeated the treaty at 
Broken Arrow. It is the interest of Georgia, as I believe 
it is the wish of her people, that the territory be organized 
as speedily as possible, consistently with the treaty ; and as, 
in expediting the removal of the Indians, much will depend 
on the facilities afforded by the Agent, it is presumable 
that he will not ftiil to take the necessary measures to detain 
them to the last hour limited by the treaty. I understand, 
further, that those of the tribe who refused their assent to 
the treaty, threaten injury to Mcintosh and his Chiefs. 
Should the execution of these threats be attempted, (the 
treaty having been ratified,) I will feel it to be my duty to 
punish, in the most summary manner, and wilh the utmost 



262 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

severity, every sncli attempt, as an act of hostility commit- 
ted within the actual territory and acknowledged jurisdic- 
tion of Georgia ; and thus, whether the Agent of the United 
States may think proper to deport himself as a neutral or 
a partisan. 

With great respect and consideration, 

G. M. Teoup. 

P. S. Dr. Meriw^ether, the Secretary to the Commission- 
ers, I learn, proceeds to Washington with the treaty. He 
will, no doubt, be able to give you any information which 
you may require touching the proceedings at the Indian 
Sprinsrs. 

G. M. Tkoup. 
The Hon. Senators and Representatives in 
Congress, from Georgia, 
Washington City. 

The Secretary of the Commission was Major Hay, and 
not Dr. AVilliara Meriwether, who was present, however, and 
afterwards made an affidavit, from which the following is an 
extract : 

" After the whole treaty had been gone through and ex- 
plained, it was signed and sealed by the parties. There 
was no objection whatever made by Col. Crowell, or the 
Interpreter, when called upon to witness the treaty, nor did 
this cleponent ever hear from Col. Crowell the slightest sug- 
gestion that the Chiefs present were not competent to make 
a treaty, nor does he believe that any such suggestion was 
made." 

On the 2Sth of February, 182.5, the President sent to tlie 
Senate, " a treaty lately concluded at the Indian Springs, 
by Commissioners of the United States, duly authorized, 
with the Chiefs of the Creek Nation, assembled in council, 
with the documents connected therewith." 

So it appears that Col. Crowell's letter, of 13th February, 
complaining that the treaty was " in direct opposition to 
the letter and spirit of the instructions," had no effect upon 
the Executive Government at Washington. On the 3d of 
March, the Senate advised and consented to the treaty, and 
the same was duly ratified and confirmed by Mr, Adams, 
(who had succeeded Mr. Monroe, in the Presidency, on the 



Chap. X.] THE GOVERJ^OR'S PROCLAMATIONS. 263 

fourtli of March,) four days afterwards, that is, on the 
seventh day of the same month, '^* 

On the 21st of March, the Governor issued his procla- 
mation, which, after reciting the ratification of the treaty, 
&c., said : 

" I have, therefore, thought proper to issue this, my 
prochimation, warning all persons, citizens of Georgia and 
others, against trespassing or intruding upon the lands oc- 
cnpiecl by the Indians, within the limits of this State, either 
for the purpose of settlement or otherwise ; as every such 
act will be in direct violation of the provisions of the treaty 
aforesaid, and will expose the aggressors to the most cer- 
tain and summary punishment by the authorities of the 
State and of the United States." 

A proclamation was also issued by the Governor, on the 
ISth day of April, reciting the ratification of the treaty, 
the importance " that the territory aforesaid should be or- 
ganized and settled with as little delay as may comport 
with the provisions of the treaty ; and, to this end, the 
assent of the Indians having been obtained, to the running 
and survey of the country under the authority of the State" 
— he, therefore, by authority of the Legislative resolve, 
called an extra session of the General Assembly, to meet 
at Milledgeville on the 23d day of May. 

Meanwhile, a storm was gathering, which was soon to 
burst on the head of Mcintosh, and to produce scenes of 
disorder seldom witnessed amongst civilized or savage men. 
With the calmness and foresight for which he was so re- 
markable under the most adverse circumstances. Governor 
Troup had contemplated the prospect, and, with his usual 
energy, had determined to prevent the threatened outbreak, 

* The vote, in the Senate, on advising and consenting to the treatj', was as follows : 
Yeas— Messrs. Barbour,f Bell, Benton, Bouligny, Brown, Clayton, Cobb, Dickerson, Eaton, 
Edwards, Elliott, Findlay, Gaillard, Ilayne, Holmes, of Me., Holmes, of Mississippi , Johnson, 
Johnston, Kelly, King, of Ala., Lanman, Lloyd, of Md., Lloyd, of Mass., Lowrie, McUvaine, 
McLean, Macon, Mills, Parrott, Buggies, Seymour, Smith, Talbot, Tazewell, Thomas, Van 
Buren, Van Dyke, and Williams^.38. Nats— Messrs. Barton, of Missouri, Branch, of North 
Carolina, Chandler, of Maine, and DeWolf, of Rhode Island— 4.— Ed. 

fThe same person who, afterwards, whilst Secretary of War, negotiated the second, or " new" 
Creek treaty — Ed. 



264 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROXJP. [Chap. S. 

if possible. On the ITtli February, certain Chiefs of the 
friendly Indians met the Governor in his office, and made 
an address to him, in which they said : 

" We meet you to-day, in your office, to express om* 
opinion as principal chiefs of Coweta ; which expression 
we have considered best to give yon in writing, that you 
may know when we act contrary to onr talk. Eighteen 
hundred and thirteen was the beginning of the hostile 
party, and General Mcintosh was the first red man who 
joined the United States, and spilt his blood in her defence ; 
at that time we were warriors under General Mcintosh, 
and fought for our country ; and, after peace was made, 
we were appointed Chiefs by General Mcintosh, not by 
Little Prince or the Big Warrior ; therefore we love said 
Mcintosh until death, and will hold fast to his talks, because 
we know he acts agreeable to our father's talks, and by 
him wo gain our protection from our father the President. 
Looking back to 1813, we believe that but for the relations 
which Mcintosh sustained to the United fStates, we should 
have lost our lands without getting a penny for them. 

Father : At the late treaty of the Indian Springs, a good 
many hostiles, as usual, objected to it. If that party should 
attempt to breed a disturbance with the friendly Indians, 
we shall inform you for protection ; and we hope you will 
protect us, in case the hostiles should intrude on us, as w^e 
look for protection from you, as we have been trying to 
gratify the wishes of our father, the President. We hope 
he loves us as his red children ; and we hope you love us 
as friends of justice, as friends of good order arid friends of 
harmony." 

Three days after, they again addressed the Governor, 
and, amongst other things, said : 

" Our Father : At the treaty of Br(^ken Arrow, the chiefs 
got jealous of Mcintosh, and threatened to kill him ; the 
charge against him was that he wanted to sell land to the 
commissioners of the United States. In 1824, a few chiefs 
met at a place called the Pole Cat Springs, and passed a 
law that if any person should sell or off<3r land for sale, 
guns and rope should be their end. This law was intended 
to prevent General Mcintosh from selling land ; but it was 
not agreeable to the laws of the nation. If it was intended 
to be the national law, it ought to have been read before 
the national chiefs, and let them determine it — not collect 
a few chiefs to make a law. Could an individual State 



Chap. X.] INDIAN CONFERENCE. 26^ 

pass a law to extend all over the United States, or one 
county make and enforce a law for the government of the 
whole State? The guns and rope are taken from the pat- 
tern of the Cherokees. Therefore we do not consider it a 
law of the nation to be enforced ; it is merely law among 
themselves ; hut those who signed their names to the pat- 
tern of the Cherokees, determine to execute the law. This 
is the report from some of our friends. If they determine, 
we are ready to defend ourselves, and, with your assistance, 
they will find a great difference in numbers. Our charac- 
teristic disposition is to treat all mankind as friends, brothers 
and relations. We determine never to impose on any man, 
but treat all as friends." 

It appears, by the Executive Journal of that date, that on 
the 10th of February, several of the Chiefs of the Creek 
nation, Gen. Mclntosli among them, went to the Executive 
chamber to hold a " talk " with the Governor, the sub- 
stance of which was tliat they had consented to give up 
their lands and move across the Mississippi — that they 
expected, before they left, to encounter difficulties and 
privations ; notwithstanding which, they were willing to 
listen to the advice of their great father, and give up the 
lands ; but, in doing this, offence had been given to some of 
their people ; and, as there were bad white men among 
them, who were endeavoring to stir up their own people to 
do them harm ; and, more especially, as the Agent was 
among their worst enemies, and they could expect no pro- 
tection or support from him, they wanted to know whether 
they could be certain of protection from the government of 
the United States, and from that of Georgia, &c., &c. — 
tliat to this the Governor replied, stating the happiness he 
felt at their determination to remove, &c., &c. ; that, with 
regard to protection against their own people who were 
hostile, or against the whites, he had no doubt the Presi- 
dent would afford them all the protection their situation 
might require ; that, as to the State of Georgia, they sliould, 
so far as depended on him, find protection at all times; 
and, so long as they conducted themselves well, the 
people of Georgia would be ready to support him in it, with 
all their hearts ; for they had for a long time been the 
34 



266 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

friends of Georgia in peace and war, and that they them- 
selves had fought and bled for Georgia in the last war, and 
that the Georgians could not forget them, &c., &c. There 
was some further talk not important for insertion here — 
the foregoing being generally a substantial, and, for the 
most part, a literal, extract from the Journal referred to. 

With commendable promptness, the Governor dispatched 
one of his Aids-de-camp, Col. Henry G. Lamar, to the 
Creek country, with the following message to the hostile 
Indians : 

ExECuxrv^E Department, Georgia, ) 
IfUledgeville, 2Gth Feb., 1825. \ 

In consequence of the apprehensions expressed in a talk 
delivered by the friendly Chiefs of the Creek Nation, on 
the 19th instant, the written communication delivered at 
the same time, and another on the 21st, by Etome Tuste- 
nnggee, of the hostile intentions of the unfriendly party in 
said Nation, toward Mcintosh and his friends, in conse- 
quence of the late treaty ; and, in compliance with the 
promises given them, tJiat every aid should be afforded 
them within the power of this government, it is thought 
proper to send a friendly talk to the Chiefs of Tookaubat- 
chee and Kussetau, at the same time forewarning them 
of the danger to which they will expose themselves by any 
outrage committed on Mcintosh, or any of the friendly 
Indians, in consequence of said treaty. Accordingly, Col. 
Henry G. Lamar is dispatched with a talk to said hostile 
Chiefs, in the following words, to wit : 
To the Chiefs and Headmen of 

Toohauhatchee and Kussetau: 

I hear bad things of you. You threaten Mcintosh and 
his people, because they listened to their father, the Presi- 
dent, and ceded the lands to the Georgians. They acted 
like good and dutiful children. You opposed yourselves to 
the wishes of your great father, who was doing the best 
for the interest of his red people, and would not sign the 
treaty. But this you did, as I believe, under the influence 
of bad men, who pretended to be your friends, but who 
cared nothing about you. Now I tell you, take care and 
walk straight. Mcintosh and his people are under my 
protection, as well as under the protection of the United 
States. If any harm is done by you, or any of your people, 
to Mcintosh or his people, I will treat you in the same way 



Chap. X.] INSTRUCTIONS TO COL. LAMAR. 267 

as if yon were to come into onr white settlements and do 
the like. I will pursne yon nntil I have full satisfaction. 
Do not let bad men persuade you that because you live in 
and near to Alabama, yon will be safe. If you commit one 
act of hostility on this side the line, I will follow and punish 
you. But I hope there will be no occasion for this, and that 
you will take counsel of wise and good men, and so conduct 
yourselves for the future, as to receive the approbation and 
protection of your father, the President, and that I also 
may look upon you as friends and treat you accordingly. 
This message will be delivered to yon by my Aid-de-camp, 
Col. Lamar. 

G. M. Teoup, _ 
Governor of Georgia. 

In his instructions to Colonel Lamar, the Governor, 
amongst other things, said : 

From the moment of the ratification, the territory willbe 
considered as belonging to Georgia, in all respects, excepting 
merely the temporary occupancy of the Indians, and any 
act of disorder or violence committed there, will be treated 
as committed within the actual jurisdiction of the State, 
and, of course, the Indians committing it, pursued and 
punished wheresoever they may go. 

You will meet them with friendly dispositions : say to 
them, in accordance with the spirit of the message which 
you carry, that it is the settled opinion of all the wise and 
good men of the United States, that the Indians, looking to 
notliing but their own interest, present and future, ought 
to move, without delay, beyond the Mississippi. They al- 
ready know this to be the advice of their great father. 
They will soon know it to be the advice of his great coun- 
cil, the Congress. None but bad men, hostile to their true 
interests, will ever advise them to the contrary. You will 
take with you the published documents, showing the views of 
the President in relation to the conduct of both the Agent* 

* In his report, of 8th January, to the War Department, written at Washington City, 
Col. Campbell, speaking of the failure of negotiations at Broken Arrow, attributed the failure 
to certain unfavorable influences which had been produced by (amongst others,) John Ross, a 
Cherokee Chief, and Walker, th» sub-Agent of Indian Affairs These influences caused a meet- 
ing of a portion of the Creeks at Tookaub^tohee, in May, and at Pole Cat Springs, in November, 
lS2-t. At the former, a resolution was passed to " follow the pattern of the Cherokees, 
and, on no account whatever, to consent to sell one foot of land, neither by exchange nor 
otherwise," and •' this meeting was attended exclusively by Chiefs within the Alabama limits." 
Referring to the proceedings at these meetings, Col. Campbell said : " Of the existence of these 
proceedings, by which the question was prejudged, and the commission forestalled, wo had no 
knowledge until we obtained it casually on our way to the treaty. Under these disadvantages 
the negotiation was commenced ; and tlic journal of oiu- proceedings, herewith furnished, wil 1 



268 I^IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

and Cherokees at Broken Arrow, the indignation with 
which he viewed their conduct, and, of conrse, the indig- 
nation with which he will regard the conduct of the Indians 
hostile to the treaty, if they do not in future deport them- 
selves as men deserving his love and friendship ; and 
another paper, less authentic, but not altogether unofficial, 
taken from the National Journal, in which they will see 
that the Indians west of the Mississippi, without foreknow- 
ledge of the views or plans of the President, have adopted 
the same views, and are concerting the same measures for 
bringing all the Indians together on the west of the Missis- 
sippi ; and that soon, very soon, they will all go ; so that a 
red man will not be seen between the Mississippi and the 
lakes. 

Pursuant to his instructions. Col. Lamar proceeded im- 
mediately to the Creek country. He visited the towns of 
Kussetau and Tookaubatchee, held a talk with the Indians, 
endeavored to compose the excited feelings of the discon- 
tented, &c., &c. On the 10th of March, he made a report 
to the Governor, but we can copy only the concluding part, 
as follows : 

" My own opinion, which is partly conjectural, and in 
part formed from observation and conversations had with, 
some of the Indians, is this — leave them to themselves — if 
they clearly understand what are the wishes of the Presi- 
dent, they will conform to them. I speak of them collect- 
ively, as a people. They have no correct notions of our 
government and their relative connection with it. Their 
conclusion is, that the powers of the President are absolute, 
and that he has an unquestionable right to coerce ol)edience. 
But, independent of this notion of fear, the unlimited con- 
fidence reposed in the wisdom and virtue of the President, 

serve to show, to some extent, the manner in which it was pursued. The Commissioners were 
dependent solely upon their own exertions. They derived no aid from the principal Agent, 
and encountered the perfidious opposition of his assistant." On the 1.3th January, Mr. Cal- 
houn, the Secretary of Wai-, writing to Col. Campbell, and referring to the conduct of the 
Agent, said : "It was not doubted by the Department but that he would zealously co-operate 
in effecting the object of the government in authorizing the treaty to be held. It appears, 
however, by the report, that the Agent neglected to inform you of the previous meetings and 
decision of the Creek Chiefs at Tookaubatchee and the. Pole Cat Springs, which had so material 
a bearing on the negotiation ; and that the Commissioners had to rely solely upon their own 
exertions, without aid from the Agent, who assumed a neutral position. It also appears, from 
the journal, that, in the opinion of the Commissioners, the Creek Indians have been misled by 
the Cherokees, and others, whose duty it was to have instructed them better. It is the desire of 
tlie President, before he makes any decision on the conduct of the Agent, to be put in full pos. 
session of all the facts and circumstances which may enable him to form a correct opinion as 
to his condiact and motives in withholding his co-operation," &c., &c. — Ed. 



Chap. X.] LETTER FROM CHILLY M'INTOSH. 269 

is a sure guaranty of the successful accomplishmeut of his 
wishes. In order to destroy the effects of this influence, I 
discover that the belief has been imposed upon them, (at 
least to some extent,) that the Commissioners, being Geor- 
gians, were only subserving the interest and wishes of 
Georgia. There are a number of white men settled among 
them, who heretofore looked with pleasure on their pros- 
pects of enjoying the benefits of a permanent location, v/ho 
have acquired their confidence by the connections they have 
formed, and I have no doubr that their influence is secretly 
exerted to excite discontent, and inculcate opinions adverse 
to the interest of Georgia and the policy of the General 
Government. There is another prevailing feeling among 
them. They indulge the belief, should they move beyond 
the Mississii)pi, that a perpetual warfare with the tribes in- 
habiting that country would be the inevitable consequence. 
You will discover in my talk to them, with the view to 
produce a complete reconciliation, I endeavored to refute 
that opinion. If the treat}^ is ratified, I have no doubt that 
all clamor will cease ; for, in proportion as they understand 
the wishes of the President, and the course of conduct our 
government adopts towards them, in the same degree will 
all other influence be diminished. Added to this, what has 
been done, w^as done, no doubt, with the view to prevent 
its ratification. The cause, therefore, which produced the 
excitement, will cease to exist after that desirable object is 
accomplished." 

It is proper also to remark that Ho-poth-le-Yoholo and 
Little Prince, then the principal men of Tookaubatchee and 
Kussetau, both denied to Col. Lamar any hostility to M'Intosh 
and the other friendly Indians, for having signed the treaty. 

]jut there were secret and malign influences at work, 
which it was not in the power of the Governor to coun- 
teract successfully. A week after penning his instructions 
to Col. Lamar, he received the following letter : 

Newnan, 3d March, 1825. 
Governor: I take the authority to inform you, since we 
left you we haven't got home in consequence of thehostiles. 
I met my friends at Flint Eiver, Mr, Miller and A. Tus- 
tuunuggee, and they tell me that they run them off — threat- 
ened to kill them — cut their throats and set up their heads 
by the road for a show — they are determined to die on their 
own country, and they have appointed men to kill seven 



270 I^IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

Chiefs, Gen. Mcintosh, myself, Joseph Marshall, Samuel 
Hawkins, James Island, Etome Tustunnuggee and Col. Mil- 
ler. Since the treaty, the hostile party have been in council 
a second time at Broken Arrow, and are now at Tookau- 
batchee, holding a council — they have not broke np yet. 
"We understand they have sent a memorial on to the Presi- 
dent not to interfere with them or assist us — to let them 
settle it among themselves. No doubt they are determined 
to destroy us if they can. Myself and father parted at the 
Indian Springs, on our way home — since I heard the news, 
I have dispatched a runner to him, not to stay one moment 
at home, but to meet me at this place. Excuse my hand- 
writing. This is not half I know, but the bearer of this is 
in a hurry. 

I remain your son, 

CniLLY MoIntosh. 
His Excellency G. M. Troup. 



Chilly Mcintosh, was the son of General William Mcintosh, 
head Chief of the Cowetas, and that all the threatened 
Chiefs above named, belonged to the Mcintosh or friendly 
party — several of them having signed the treaty. The 
Governor, in his reply, dated 5th March, said : 

" Your letter of the 3d came safe to me this moment. 
I am sorry to hear that the hostiles continue to be such 
fools and madmen. They will soon be taught better. If 
they do not listen to my talks sent by Col, Lamar, I will 
send a military force to the line, to keep them in order and 
punish offenders. Col. Lamar left this for Kussetau and 
Tookaubatchee last Sunday, the 27th February. He 
must have arrived at the council before this. It is as I told 
you it would be; the hostiles have been set on by bad 
white men. I hope your father will keep out of their way 
until they are brought to their senses." 

The following letter was written by Gen. Mcintosh to the 
Governor : 

CnATTATioocHEE, 29th Marcli, 1S25, 
To His Excellency G. M. Troup : 

Sir : I take the liberty of sending Samuel Hawkins to 
you, seeing in the newspapers your proclamation stating 
that the treaty was ratified by the President and Senate. 
We see in the papers, also, where Crowell had wrote to the 



Chap. X.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH GEN. M'INTOSH. 2Y1 

Department that Chiefs of the lowest grade had signed the 
treaty, and we see where he says there will be hostilities 
with ns if the United States sign the treaty. We are not 
any ways in danger until he comes home and commences 
hostility, and urges it himself on ns. If the treaty is rati- 
fied, if you can "let Samuel Hawkins have two thousand 
dollars, or stand his security in the Bank to that amount, 
we will send men on now to look at the country to try to 
move away this fall ; the money, if loaned to us, will be 
paid back as soon as the money comes on to pay the first 
payment of the treaty. 

Any information tliat you can give him will be satisfac- 
tory to us. 

Your dear friend, &c., 

William McIntosh. 

The same day. Governor Troup wrote to Mcintosh, as 
follows : 

Executive Depaktment, ] 
imiedgemlU, '^Wi March, 1825. f 

Dear General ; You will have seen by my proclamation 
of the 21st inst., that I have resolved, in fulfihnent of the 
stipulations of the treaty, to maintain inviolate all your 
rights reserved by it, so that you sufier no detriment or loss 
by the trespasses or intrusions of the whites as long as you 
continue to occupy the country. 

It is important that the territory acquired by the late 
treaty should be organized as speedily as possible, consist- 
ently with the provisions of that instrument ; and, not 
doubting that your assent will be given to the survey of it 
before your removal, I have dispatclied a messenger to you, 
that your resolution may be communicated to me without 
delay. It is not presumed that the least inconvenience can 
result to you from this measure. Besides my own deter- 
mination to cause the rights of the Indians to be respected 
in their persons and property at all times, there will be a 
future and ample security and protection in the selection of 
the officers who shall be charged with the duty of running 
the lines, who shall be responsible, not only that no depre- 
dations are committed by themselves, but that none shall 
be committed by others, without their giving prompt notice 
to the lawful authorities, so that the off'enders may be brought 
to justice. 

You will understand that there is no intention on my 
part to hurry yonr departure ; the period of this will be 



2f2 t'IFE OF (iEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. t. 

left to your considerations of interest and convenience un- 
der the treaty ; but as the survey is a work of time, this 
time can be saved to us; so that, having completed it, noth- 
ing will remain but to occupy and settle the country after 
you shall have left it. I wish you by all means to give me 
your final answer by this express, that I may know what 
measures it will become my duty to adopt. 
Your friend, 
Gen. "William Mcintosh, G. M. Troup. 

Creek JS'ation. 

The following is the reply to Mcintosh's letter: 

Executive Department, ) 

IfilledgeviUe, Uh April, 1825. f 

Dear General : I have received your letter of the 29th 
ult., by Col. Hawkins. There will be no danger of any 
hostility in consequence of the ratification of the treaty. 
You will find everything going on peaceably and quietly. 
If bad white men intermeddle to stir up strifes and excite 
bad passions among the Indians, I will have them punished. 
The President will do the same. My agent has reported 
that the Indians opposed to the treaty are quite friendly ; 
that they think of no mischief ; that they love you, and 
will do whatever their father, the President, advises. The 
Senate ratified the treaty, without any ditticulty, although 
the Agent was opposed to it. I write, this morning, to the 
United States Commissioners, to furnish you with the ne- 
cessary funds to enable your Commissioners to explore the 
country west of the Mississippi, so that you may make 
your arrangements to move during the next fall. As soon 
as I hear from them, you shall know it. I wish you to 
inform me, as early as possible, of your resolution about 
the running and survey of the country, as mentioned in 
my letter by express. 

You will have seen, by my proclamation, that I have de- 
termined the Indians shall sufiter no loss or injury from our 
white people, if I can help it. It is intended to guard them 
against those people whom they will themselves consider 
as trespassers and intruders ; and not to prevent white 
people from going into the JSTation, with honest intentions, 
to make purchase of stock or property of any kind which 
you can lawfully dispose of; all such persons will be suft'ered 
to pass and repass without molestation. We will endeavor, 
too, to appoint good and honest men for our Surveyors, so 



Chap. X.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH McINTOSH. 2^3 

that they will do no harm themselves, and suffer none done 
to the Indians. 

Your friend, 
Gen. William Mclntosli, G. M. Tiiour. 

Creek Nation. 
Mclntosli wrote again, on the 6th, as follows : 

AcoEN Bluff, Cth April, 1S25. 
Governor Troup : 

Dear Sir : I received your letter of the 29th March, 
by the liands of your messenger, which gave me plea- 
sure to get. On the 10th of this month the Chiefs will 
be liere, when I will lay your letter before them, after 
which I will inform you what we shall agree to without 
delay. When this meeting is held, if we agree to the run- 
ning of the lands, it is my wish that the Surveyors should 
get their support from the red people. 
I am, dear sir, 

Yours with respect, 

William McIntosii. 

On the Uch, the Governor again wrote to Mcintosh, 
sending an express, the next day, to learn the deliberations 
of the Council, and also to inform the General that the 
money asked as an advance for the exploration of the 
country west of the Mississippi, would be ready whenever 
sent for through an authorized agent, &c. 

Mcintosh replied, on the 12th of April, to the Governor's 
letters of 29tli March and 1-tli April. After referring to 
the supposed friendly feelings of the Indians who opposed 
the treaty, and the danger to which the friendly party 
might be exposed, as well as the disposition of the Governor 
and the President to protect them, he said : 

" I have been, however, at some loss in making up my 
mind, and must confess to you the embarrassment I have 
labored under. Ever since the President of the United 
States has had agents residing among us, we have univer- 
sally considered it our duty to consult him on all important 
matters that relate to the General Government or the gov- 
ernment of any particular State, considering him the legal 
and proper organ through whom allofScial correspondence 
should pass, in relation to our interests appertaining to the 
treaties made with our nation and the United States. 
Some differences existing between the present Agent of the 
35 



274 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap, X. 

Creek nation and myself, and not having any confidence in 
his advice, I have determined to act according to the dictates 
of my best judgment, which results in the determination to 
agree to the request of your Excellency, in giving my con- 
sent, and, in behalf of the nation who signed the treaty, 
their consent that the land lately ceded to the United 
States, at the Indian Springs, may be run off and surveyed 
whenever you may, or the General Government, think 
proper to do so. If the general government of the United 
States have no objection, and the Agent of the Creek na- 
tion, with the party he influences, does not make any 
objection or opposition to running and surveying the land, 
myself and the Chiefs and Indians, who were in favor of 
the late treaty, do not object. We give our consent." 

At the same time, Mcintosh wrote to the Governor, send- 
ing a memorial of Chiefs to the Legislature, requesting that 
it be laid before the General Assembly, &c. It abounded 
in expressions of good will, and was called their " last and 
farewell address." Although too long for transcription, we 
cannot omit the following excerpts : 

" The country which you now possess, and that which 
we now remain on, was by the Great Spirit originally given 
to his red chiklren. Onr brothers, the white men, visited 
us when we were like the trees of the forest. Our fore- 
fathers smoked the pipe of peace and friendship with the 
forefathers of the white man, and when the white man said, 
we wish to live with the red man and inhabit the same 
country, we received their presents, and said, welcome ; we 
will give you land for yourselves and for your children. 
We took the white man by the hand, and held fast to it. 
We became neighbors, and the children of the white man 
grew up, and the children of the red man grew up in the 
same country, and we were brothers. The white men be- 
came numerous as the trees of the forest, and the red men 
became like the buffalo. Friends and Brothers : You 
are like the mighty storm ; we are like the tender and 
bending tree ; we must bow before you ; you have torn us 
up by the roots, but still you are our brothers and friends. 
You have promised to replant us in a better soil, and to 
watch over us and nurse us. " * ' * The day 

is come when we surrender the country of our forefathers — 
land of our nativity ; our homes, the places of our youthful 
diversions. We surrender it to our brothers and friends, 
and our heart3 are glad that we are not forced to do so by 



Chap. X.] LETTERS TO McINTOSH. 275 

our enemies. We go ; our people will seek new lands ; our 
hearts remain with you." 

The memorial was signed by Mcintosh and fifteen other 
Chiefs. 

The Governor replied as follows : 

Executive Department, ) 
MilledgevilU, IQth A^pril, 1825. f 

Dear General : Your two letters, of the 12th instant, 
have just been received, by which it is made known to me, 
that, in council, you have given your consent to the survey 
of the lands. Your memorial to the Legislature will be 
presented, according to your request, and the notice you 
wish published, in relation to purchases of property of any 
kind, improvements, &c., &c., will, in the same words as 
you have written, be printed in our next papers. 

I hope that you will meet the Little Prince and council, 
in good friendship. I wish to see you all united in brother- 
ly affection before you move, and am convinced the Presi- 
dent desires the same. 

Your friend, G. M. Tkoup. 

Gen. William Mcintosh, Creek Nation. 

In his letter of 12th April, from which we have already 
quoted, Mcintosh had written to the Governor : 

" I have this moment received notification from the 
Little Prince, inviting me and the chiefs in this quarter, to 
attend a meeting of the nation at Broken Arrow, on the 
19th instant. My own health will not permit me, probably, 
to attend the meeting in person, but all of my Chiefs will go, 
I have determined, if my health permits, to accompany the 
delegation to the Western country, in our exploring tour, 
so soon as we receive the money which we desired you to 
obtain for us through the Commissioners." 

The following correspondence explains itself: 

MiLLEDGEviLLE, IStli April, 1825. 

Dear General : In one of your late letters, you say some- 
thing about the consent of the United States, or if the agent 
and the hostiles do not make opposition. Pray, explain to 
me your meaning. We have nothing to do with the 
United States, or the agent, or the hostiles, in this matter; 
all we want is the consent of the friendly Indians who^made 
the treaty. If we wanted the consent of the United States, 
w^e could ask it. 

Your friend, G. M. Tkoup. 

Gen. William Mcintosh, Creek Nation. 



2Y6 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

Ceeek Kation, 25tli April, 1825. 

Dear Sir : I received your Excellency's request, yester- 
day, dated the IStli inst.,''and hereby state to you that my 
only meaning was not to act contrary to stipulations made 
between our nation and the United States government ; 
and we do hereby, absolutely, freely and fully, give our 
consent to the State of Georgia, to have the boundary be- 
longing to said State surveyed at any time the Legislature 
of Georgia may think proper, which was ceded at the late 
treaty of the Indian Springs. 

Signed in behalf of the Nation, and by the consent of the 
Chief's of the same. 

I have the honor to be, sir, with great esteem. 

Yours respectfully, 

WiLiJAM McIntosk. 
His Excellency Geo. M. Troup. 

The writing of this letter was one of the last acts of 
Mcintosh. On the night of the 29th or the morning of the 
30tli of April, he was cruelly murdered, at his own house 
on the Chattahoochee, by a band of the hostile Indians. 
Tome (or Etome) Tustunnuggee, an old chief of Coweta, 
shared the same fate ; and Samuel Hawkins, son-in-law of 
Mcintosh, perished some hours later. Chilly Mcintosh 
escaped, by jumping through a window, and fled, with the 
news, to the Governor. Gen. Ware wrote, as follows, to 
Gov. Troup : 

Line Ceeek, Fayette County, Ga., ) 
May 1st, 1825. j 

Gov. Troup : The information you have no doubt re- 
ceived by Chilly Mcintosh and other Indians, will be 
confirmed by the following relation of the circumstances 
attending the horrid transaction on the Chattahoochee and 
Tallapoosa, in the Creek nation. On the morning of the 
30th April, several neighbors of mine who lodged on the 
bank of the Chattahoochee, this side of Mcintosh's, about 
day-break heard the war-whoop, and they suppose from 
two to four hundred guns were tired — the houses were on 
fire when they set oft". An intelligent Indian, Col. Miller, 
who has fled to my house, together with about 150 others, 
states that he supposes there are upwards of 400 warriors of 
the hostile party embodied on the Chattahoochee, at Mcin- 
tosh's, feasting on all the cattle thej^ can find, hogs, &c.. 



Chap. X.] MURDER OF McINTOSH, &c. 27T 

belongine: to the friendly party — states, also, that they have 
taken Mcintosh's negroes and all other property they can 
find — they, he states, intend marching toward the settle- 
ment of the whites in three days. In this I am a little 
incredulous ; though, as far as the resources of our country 
will aiford, I will be prepared. Major Finley Stewart is 
collecting some volunteers to go out and reconnoitre the 
country ; he will set off as soon as practicable. He, Col. 
Miller, supposes, including numbers long cloaked under 
the garb of friendship, who, since the death of Mcintosh, 
have joined the hostile party, that the hostile party in the 
nation largely exceeds 4000 warriors, and that the friendly 
party amounts now to only 500. They implore protection 
— they need it — they are constantly coming in — say the 
road is covered with others. 

Yours respectfully, Alexander Wake. 

Some pr<wision ought to be m.ade to supply those ref- 
ugees with food. A. W. 

Governor Troup addressed the following letter to the 
President : 

Executive Department, ) 

JfiUedgeville, 3d Mai/, 1825. f 

Sir : Yesterday, Chilly Mcintosh, son of the General, 
and bearer of this, came with other Chiefs to announce the 
death of his father. Un the night of the 29th ult., whilst 
reposing in his bed, the savages hostile to the treaty, in 
great numbers beset and fired his house, and this chieftain, 
whose virtues would have honored any country, perished 
b_y the flames or tomahaw^k. The old Chief of Coweta, 
w^ho was pursued with the same vengeance,* and for the 
same objects, perished with him. The crime of Mcintosh 
and Tustunnuggee is to be sousihtin the wise and magnani- 
mous conduct which, at the Indian Springs, produced the 
treaty of the 12th of February, and which, in making a 
concession of their whole country, satisfied the just claims 
of Georgia, reconciled the State to the Federal Government, 
and made happy, at least in prospect, the condition of the 
Creeks. When, by the last of his generous actions, he had 

* Those who desire to sec a detailed statpmont of tlieso murders, are referred to the letter 
of Col. A. J. Pickett, of Alabama, in White's Historical Collections, pp. 170, 171, 172, and 
173. It seems that the body of JWcIntosh was not burned, but that his scalp, " which w-as 
suspended upon a pole in the public square of Ocfuskee, (a Creek Town on the Tallapoosa 
River,) was the spectacle of old and j'oung, who danced around it, with shouts of joy"; and 
that Tustunnuggee and Hawkins were also scalped, and their scalps carried to the Talla- 
poosa. — Ed. 



2Y8 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

given liis consent, in nnion with liis Council, to the survey 
and appropriation of the country, only to gratify the wishes 
of the Georgians, and was on the eve of departure to ex- 
ploi-e the new home, where the future fortunes of all were 
to abide, he met the stroke of the assassin, and the bravest 
of his race fell by the hands of the most treacherous and 
cowardly. The guilty authors of this massacre it will be 
for you to detect and punish. I have done my duty. 

You will soon read, in my official correspondence with 
your government, the Indians and the Commissioners, the 
beginning, the progress, and the end of this frightful 
tragedy, in which the catastrophe was foreseen, of which, 
ever and anon, the government of the United States was 
distinctly forewarned, which by the breath of its nostrils 
might have been averted, but which was not averted. In 
despite of every thing attempted to the contrary, I had. 
before succeeded in maintaining peace. Even now, at the 
very moment I write, a message, of which you have a 
copy, is dispatched to the surviving Chiefs to forbear hos- 
tility. I believe the advice will be taken as an order; but, 
it is' my duty to inform^ you, that to keep this peace longer 
than i can hear from you, will be impossible to any 
efforts of yours or mine, unless the most ample satisfaction 
and atonement shall be made promptly •for the death of 
Mcintosh and his friend.* The Legislature will convene 
in a few days, and on this account I have deferred any 
measures, either of retaliation or protection, 
With great respect and consideration, 

G. M. Tkoup. 
The President of the United States, 
Washington City. 

The following is the "Message to the surviving Chiefs," 
referred to in the preceding letter : 

Executive Department, ) 

Milledgemlle, 3d May, 1825. j 
Friend : I heard with sorrow, yesterday, of the death of 
our common friend, Mcintosh. All good hearts among the 
whites deplore it as much as you. Satisfaction will be de- 
manded, 'and satisfaction shall be had — but we must not be 
hasty about it. We will be cool and deliberate in the 

* It is apparent from this and other expressions in the letter, that the Governor had not 
then heard of the death of Hawkins — Chilly Mcintosh having left before th^t took place, and 
even before the manner of Mcintosh or Tustunnuggee's death was known, it being clear that 
neither of them died by " flames or tomahawk."— Ed. 



Chap. X.] MILITARY PREPARATIOX. 270 

measures we take, and then we will be certain to be right. 
You be peaceable and quiet until you liear from me, in the 
same manner as if nothing had happened to Mcintosh or 
Tustunnuggee ; but depend on it, my revenge I will have 
— it will be such as we have reason to believe the Great 
Spirit would require — sucli as our Christ would not think 
too much, and yet so much that I trust all red and white 
men will be content with. Mind what I say to you until 
you hear from me. 

G. M. Troup. 
Col. Joseph Marshall, 

Creek Nation. 
The followino: orders were nromulcred on the 5th : 



Pi"' 



Head Quaetees, Milledgeville, 5th May, 1825. 



The Commander-in-Chief having received information of 
the existence among the Creeks of the most frightful an- 
archy and disorder, and of the recent massacre of General 
Mcintosh and the old Chief of Coweta, within the actual 
limits of Georgia, has thought proper to adopt precaution- 
ary measures without, delay, so that if the United States, 
bound, by the Constitution and the treaty, to rej)ress and 
punish hostility among the Indians and maintain peace 
upon our borders, shall, by any means, fail in their duty in 
these respects, a competent force may be held in readiness 
to march at a moment's warning, either to repel invasion, 
suppress insurrection among the Indians Avithin our own 
territory, or give protection to the friendly Creeks, and 
avenge the death of Mcintosh, who, always a Urm friend 
to Georgia, fell a sacrifice in her cause : 

Ordered^ That Major-General Wimberly, Major-General 
Shorter, and Major-General Miller, of the 5tli, 6th and Tth 
Divisions, forthwith proceed to take the necessary measures 
to hold in readiness their respective Divisions, to march at 
a moment's warning, either by detachments or otherwise, 
as they may be commanded by authority of the Legislature, 
or of the Commander-in-Chief. 

By the Commander-in-Chief: 

Se.ieorn' Jones, 

Aid-de-Camp. 

In his orders, of same date, to each of the above named 
Generals, he said : 

In carrying into effect the enclosed General Orders, you 



280 LIFE OF dEORGE M. TROUI*. [Chap. X. 

will keep a watchful eye to the frontier of our white settle- 
ments, so that yon may be able, without communicating 
with me, to repress, on its first occurrence, any commotion 
which may liappen there in consequence of the state of 
things prevailing in the nation. Tiiese infuriated and mis- 
guided people may have the temerity, before the General 
Government can interpose, to pursue the Indians within 
our organized limits. You will, therefore, in the spirit of 
these instructions, give your orders corresponding with them 
to your most confidential officers resident near the frontiers, 
who, on any sudden emergency of this character, may, 
without consulting you, proceed instantly to their execution. 
A copy of General Ware's letter, received after my general 
orders were issued, will assure.you of the nature and extent 
of the danger to be apprehended, and of the promptitude 
with which they are to be carried into effect. 

To Brigadier-General Ware he wrote, as follows, on the 
same day : 

I have this moment received your letter, and at the very 
time when I had issued orders to Major-Generals Shorter 
and Wimberly, wirh corresponding instructions to meet the 
very exigencies which, from your information, you have 
reason to anticipate. They will have the contents of your 
letter communicated to them, that their orders may be dis- 
patched with the least possible delay. I wish you to take 
measures, and the best you can, for the comfortable main- 
tenance of our unhappy friends, whilst they seek refuge 
among us and are protected by our arms. Additional or- 
ders will be immediately given to Major-General Miller to 
hold his Division in readiness. The expense of supporting 
the Indians will be incurred by the State, in the first in- 
stance, and reimbursed to her from the first instalment pay- 
able to them by the United States. You will, therefore, 
hold me responsible for any contract you may make on 
this account, whilst, at the same time, I ask the favor of 
you to cause them to be made on the best possible terms. 

I sincerely trust, if these infuriated monsters shall have 
the temerity to set foot within our settled limits, you may 
have the opportunity to give them the bayonet freely, the 
instrument which they most dread, and which is most ap- 
propriate to the occasion. 

The same day he wrote to the War Department, as fol- 
lows : 



Chap. X.] LETTERS ON INDIAN AFFAIRS. £81 

Executive Departihent, "\ 
Milledgeville, hth May^ 1825. | 

Sir : I lose no time in commnnicating, for the informa- 
tion of the President, a copy of a letter received this 
morning from Brigadier General Ware, commanding the 
second brigade of the 5th division of the militia of this 
State, and to advise you that measures have been adopted 
for the adequate protection of the frontiers, and for the 
safety of the friendly Indians seeking refuge within our 
limits, until the authority of the United States can be 
eifectually interposed for these purposes ; and that, there- 
fore, the expenses incurred in the mean time will be con- 
sidered chargeable to the United States. In due time the 
measures referred to will be laid before you in extenso. 

With great consideration and respect. 
The Secretary of War. G. M. Tkoup. 

Col. Hawkins, the interpreter, and friend of Mcintosh, 
has shared his fate. 

Brigadier-General Charles J. McDonald having written 
the Governor a letter, dated 6th May, referring to the 
" disturbances among the Creek Indians," and especially 
the supposed danger to Col. Crowell, the Agent, from the 
alleged hostility to him of "those friendly and those hostile 
to the treaty," the Governor wrote him as follows, on 7th 
May: 

"Your letter of the Gth instant, by express, is this 
moment received. I am happy to learn from him that he 
bore to you orders from Gen. Wimberly, in consequence of 
my general orders to him. You are, therefore, already on 
your guard, and you will not hesitate a moment to take the 
necessary measures, first to make safe the frontier, and then 
to give to the Agent any protection which, according to the 
evidence before you, 'his safety shall demand; and of 
which, from your proximate situation to him, you will be 
the exclusive judge. I hope that no harm has befallen 
him ; and, if not, you may assure him that any force which 
may be necessary to reduce to order and obedience any 
militant tribes of the Creeks within our limits, shall be 
furnished promptly, under the command of a trusty officer, 
who will be charged with full power to act efficiently, 
under any exigencies that may arise. 

I thank you for the promptitude with which you have com- 
municatedi this new information — at the same time I indulge 
36 



282 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

hope tliat the cai:ise of alarm has been exaggerated. It 
is scarcely to be believed that the Agent, from whom 
nothing has been heard, well knowing the contentions which 
agitate the country, and the imminent perils Avhich sur- 
round him, should not have dispatched runners to make 
known to this government, officially, and without delay, 
the circumstances which your letter discloses upon the 
authority of a respectable traveler. The express which 
brought it, carries the answer." 

The Governor's surmises were right in regard to the 
" cause of alarm." He therefore, on the 10th of May wrote 
to Gen. McDonald, and, after referring to a letter from the 
third party, said : 

" You will immediately, therefore, on the receipt hereof, 
arrest the progress of any measures you may have devised 
for the security of the Agent, and return to the position in 
which you found yourself before you reseived my last in- 
structions. You will, however, under the general order, 
received through Major-General Wimberly, still continue to 
hold your brigade in readiness to march to any point of the 
frontier, at short notice, lest we may be deceived by ap- 
pearances, and surprised." 

In his letter of 9th May, to the Secretary of "War, 
forwarding a copy of Gen. McDonald's letter and his reply, 
the Governor said : 

"The friendly Indians continue to desert their homes, 
and seek protection within our limits. Our arms are open 
to receive them at all points, and the necessary measures 
taken for their maintenance ; the expense of which will 
devolve on the United States, or tlie Indians ; it is hoped, 
on the former." 

In a postscript, he added : " Up to this time not a word 
has been received from the Agent." 

We have been thus minute in details regarding the sud- 
den emergency which arose, not only for the purpose of 
exhibiting the patriotic promptness of Gov. Troup on an 
occasion of great interest to the country, but also to explain 
the sequel of a controversy in which it is proper that the 
course of the Governor, especially towards the Indian 
Agent, may be fully borne out by the record. That unjust 
suspicions rested upon this Agent, in regard to some matters. 



Chap. X.] NOTICES OF McINTOSH. 283 

may be conceded ; but it is also believed that an impartial 
survey of the whole ground would lead to the irresistible 
conclusion that he was not the man for the station, and 
that, in compliance with the request of the Governor, his 
commission should have been revoked. 

The murder of Mcintosh and his friends, was made the 
subject of a special presentment by the Grand Jury of the 
U. S. Sixth Circuit Court at Milledgeville, May term, 1825 ; 
but we have not space for extracts from it. 

It would be useless to attempt a notice of all the pro- 
ceedings, official and unofiicial, which grev%r out of the 
excitement in the Indian country. The messages of Gov. 
Troup and the official letters to and from him, on this 
subject, would fill a considerable volume ; and it shall be 
our duty, in succeeding pages, to make such extracts from 
them as will illustrate his history in respect to this Indian 
controversy. 

The following tribute to Mcintosh and his friends, taken 
from an article (in White's Statistics of Georgia, pp. 555, 
556,) from the pen of the late Hon. Joseph W, Jackson, 
deserves a place here : 

"This brave warrior and the other treaty-making Indians 
had borne arms for the United States ; those opposed to the 
treatv had been hostile in the war with Great Britain in 
1812!^ '13, '14 and '15. So faithful had he been to us, that 
British blandishments had failed to affect his attachments ; 
and, as a just reward for his fidelity and bravery, a briga- 
dier-general's commission had, in that war, been sent to 
him from Washington. Again, in 181Y and 1818, he 
served under Gen. Andrew Jackson, against the Indians of 
Florida. The Indians friendly to the treaty were the same 
who had made previous cessions, against their power to 
make which no word had been uttered. They were the 
proprietors and occupants of the ceded lands, and in battle 
had conquered, in times past, the recusant Indians : those op- 
posed were inhabitants of the interior country, altogether in 
Alabama, and little concerned with the question. But a few 
years before. General Jackson had treated the latter as a 
conquered people, and had prescribed to them their bounds." 

On the 18th of May, a committee of the chiefs and head- 
men of the friendly Creeks addressed a communication to 



284 I^IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

Gov. Tronp, enclosing an address, which they desired him 
to publish, the principal object of which seems to have 
been a denial of certain statements said to have been made 
by the Agent, in a letter published in a Macon paper, one 
of which was, " that the party of Indians friendly to Gen. 
Mcintosh had threatened his life." The address further 
said : "We also see, in the same paper, information derived 
from the Agency, that the killing of Mcintosh, Tome Tus- 
tunnuggee, and the two Hawkins, was not intended as 
hostilities against the whites ; that it was only a fulfilment 
of their own laws, and a law which Gen. Mcintosh himself 
had signed, and declared in the square at Broken Arrow? 
during the late treaty at that place. This law was, that if 
any Indian Chief should sign a treaty of any lands to the 
whites, that he should certainly suffer death. This state- 
ment is positively false ; and it is only made use of as a 
pretext for the cruel murders which have been committed." 

The Governor replied as follows : 

Executive Department, ) 
Milledgcville, ^Ist May, 1825. [ 

My Friends : I have this moment received your letter, 
with the paper which it enclosed, and will, as you request, 
cause them to be published in the next papers. I hope 
now that the worst is over. 'Tis true that Mcintosh and 
his friends, who have been so cruelly murdered, cannot be 
restored to life — but the Great Spirit, who is also good and 
merciful, will look down upon your sufferings with pity 
and compassion — he will wipe the tears from your eyes, 
and soften the hearts of even your enemies among the 
whites — so that, if your great father should turn his ear 
from your complaints, or shall fail to punish the white 
men, who in his name have disturbed your peace, and 
brought the heaviest afflictions upon you, he will have to 
answer for it, both to his Vv^hite children and the Great 
Spirit. It cannot be doubted, therefore, that all will yet 
be right. In the mean time, continue to do as I have 
advised you, and until you hear from me. My officers 
everywhere are ordered to take care of you and make 
you comfortable. As soon as Chilly returns, you shall 
know it. Your friend, 

The Chiefs and Headmen of G. M. Tkoup. 

the Friendly Creeks. 



Chap. X.] THE CHEROKEES— AGAIN. 286 

[1825.] Independently of tlieir complicity witli the 
hostile Creeks, the Cherokees were again disposed to give 
trouble on their own account. On 24tli March, Mr. For- 
syth wrote a letter to the Governor, enclosing the copy of 
the letter which the former had " written to the Secretary 
of War since the adjournment of Congress, on the subject 
of the execution of the recent treaty with the Creek Indians, 
and the formation of a treaty with the Cherokees," &c., 
with the Secretary's answer and several papers received 
with it. In his letter to the Secretary, dated 9th March, 
Mr. Forsyth urged the removal of the Creeks without 
unnecessary delay ; and, in regard to the Agent, he said : 
" The conduct of the Creek Agent, who has spared no pains 
to prevent the formation and ratification of the treaty, 
justifies an apprehension that he will not fail to obstruct, 
as far as is in his power, the accomplishment of the wishes 
of the State. Under this conviction, a reqiiest that the 
conduct of the Agent may be watched, and that no con- 
fidence shall be reposed in him that can be consistently 
withheld, is dictated by the interests of Georgia, the 
wishes of the Creek tribe, and the honor of the General 
Government." Eeferring to the Cherokees, he said, after 
a brief but interesting examination of their relations to 
Georgia, " my own opinion is, that the President may, 
without injustice to the Indians, without violating either 
principle or usage, cause a purchase to be made of the 
Cherokees residing in Georgia, of the lands lying in Geor- 
gia ;" and he concluded with expressing " the hope that 
a new effort with the Cherokees will have as fortunate a 
termination as the recent effort with the Creeks." 

Mr. Barbour, the new Secretary of War, replied, on 23d 
March. He said, after acknowledging the receipt of Mr. 
Forsyth's letter, &c. : 

" The treaty of the Indian Springs having been ratified, 
will be carried into effect ; measures having been already 
taken in conformity to its provisions. Upon the second 
subject referred to in yours, I have the honor to state, in 
reply, that the President, as well from inclination as a 



286 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

sense of duty, is disposed to carry into effect the conditions 
of the compact of Georgia, whenever that can be done 
consistently with its provisions. In this spirit, and in con- 
formity to your suggestion, a letter was addressed from the 
Department to the delegation of the Cherokees in this 
place, a copy of which, marked A, is herewith enclosed ; 
also, a copy of their answer, marked B, to which is added 
a copy of a communication, marked C, addressed by the 
Cherokee chiefs to the President. You will readily per- 
ceive, from this correspondence, the determined opposition 
of the Cherokees at this time to the cession of their lands. 
I am directed by the President to state, that he entirely 
accords in the policy recommended by Mr. Monroe to 
Congress, at their last session, on the subject of the general 
removal of the Indians to the west of the Mississippi — a 
policy believed to be alike advantageous to the citizens of 
the United States, in their neighborhood, and the Indians 
themselves. This object, as far as it lies within the s])here 
of his power, will be promoted, and on every suitable oc- 
casion its beneficent effects will be particularly inculcated 
on the Cherokee nation." 

It is not important to refer specially to the documents 
accompanying the letter. Ross, Lowrey and Hicks, " the 
delegation of the Cherokees," declared their sentiments in 
regard to a cesssion of lands to be the same as those 
formerly expressed to Mr. Calhoun, and that they were 
" unchangeable ;" and, in an insolent letter to the President, 
hoped that measures might be " adopted by the United 
States and the State of Georgia, so as to close their com- 
pact without zS^as^'n^ the Cherokees any more for the lands." 

The following is the Governor's reply, which, although 
addressed to Mr. Forsyth, was, as will be seen, intended for 
the Secretary of War : 

Executive Department, Georgia, ) 
MilledgevilU, dth April, 1825. j 

Sir : Your letter, of the SIth ult., covering a cor- 
respondence between yourself and the Secretary of War, 
and other papers connected with the fulfilment of the 
stipulations of the Articles of Agreement and Cession, was 
received yesterday. Accept my thanks for your unre- 
mitted attention to the interest of the State. They are 
due, from the people, to you and the rest of the delegation, 
for your generous and patriotic devotion to their rights, 



Chap. X.] LETTER TO MR. FORSYTH. 28 Y 

and for tlie firmness and dignity witli which, on every 
occasion, you have supported them. On the opening of a 
new administration of tlie General Cxovernment, soon after 
one important concession had been made to our just de- 
mands, it is scarcely necessary to inform you how eagerly 
I souD-ht repose from the painful altercation which it had 
been my imperious duty to wage with the constituted au- 
thorities of the Union, and with how much of hope and 
anxiety I looked forward to the future, trusting that, in 
better and improved relations, we would find a kindly and 
conciliatory spirit succeeded to troubled feelings ; the sense 
of wrong on either side consigned to forgetfulness ; and the 
claims of Georgia recognized in all the extent which reason, 
justice and good faith would warrant. I trust that for 
these, more has not been asked — that less will not be re- 
ceived. 

It cannot be dissembled, however, that in the answer 
given by the Secretary of War to your communication of 
the 9th ult., presupposing the best disposition to do right, 
a course of policy is indicated which must infallibly termi- 
nate in wrong. It is of kindred spirit with that, which, for 
a time, kept us in abeyance with the Creeks, and held the 
State suspended between the most fearful alternatives. On 
the 12th of March, the delegation of Cherokees at Wash- 
ington, laid before the President their customary annual 
protest against a cession of lands on any terms, now or 
hereafter. On the same day, they are asked, by order of 
the Secretary of War, if they will sell lands ; they answer, 
no, and this answer is echoed by the Secretary of War to 
you. I hope it is not considered, as it purports to hQ^ final. 
Should the proposition be renewed, another and very dif- 
ferent character must be given to it. The Cherokees must 
be told, in plain language, that the lands they occupy be- 
long to Georgia ; that sooner or later the Georgians must 
have them ; that every day, nay, every hour, of postpone- 
ment of the rights of Georgia, makes the more strongly for 
Georgia, and against both the United States and the Cher- 
okees. Why conceal from this misguided race the destiny 
which 19, fixed and unchangeable f Why conceal from them 
the fact that every advance in the improvement of the 
country is to enure to the benefit of Georgia ; that every 
fixture will pass with the soil into our hands, sooner or 
later, for which the United States must pay an equivalent 
or not, to the Indians, according to their discretion ? The 
United States are bound, injustice to themselves, instantly 
to arrest the progress of improvement in the Cherokee 



288 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. S. 

country ; it is tlie reason constantly assigned by the Chero- 
kees for their refusal to abandon the country. The force 
of the argument, therefore, if good now, increases with the 
progress of improvement ; the progress of improvement 
will be accelerated by the irresistible force of the argu- 
ment. Thus, by a double ratio of geometrical progression, 
known only to the logicians of modern times, Georgia will 
find herself in a predicament, in which, whatever may 
have been the aggravation of her wrongs, she never before 
stood — disseized of both the argument and the lands. Why 
not, therefore, in common honesty and plain dealing, say 
to the Indians, remove now, or stay the hand of improve- 
ment forever ; now we will give you the full value of im- 
provement ; hereafter we will give nothing, because we 
cannot aftbrd to pay for improvements from which no ben- 
efit will result to us, which will belong to the Georgians, 
and which you were forewarned, in good time, not to make ? 
Let them say, now is the appointed time ; we offer you acre 
for acre, and we change your tenancy at will into a fee 
simple, which will descend to your posterity forever. If 
you accept, well and good ; if you refuse, we are not bound 
to make you the same offer again. You were once without 
a country ;- you sought refuge among the Creeks ; they 
received you with open arms, and gave you tiie lands you 
now occupy ; take care that you are not without a country 
again — you may find no more Creeks — no more lands. 

Is it to be conceived that such an argument would be 
wasted on the Cherokees ? What motive would be left 
them to continue in a state so precarious, wh-en, every in- 
centive to human industry being destroyed, the barn, the 
dwelling, the out-houses, the fencing, falling into decay and 
ruin, the wretched Indian scatters upon an impoverished 
and exhausted soil the seed from which it is even doubtful 
if he is permitted by the impatient white man to reap the 
scanty harvest ? 

Is it forbidden to speak the language of truth and frank- 
ness ? It may be that all will avail nothing. If all should, 
it will be because the Cherokees distrust the sincerity of 
the United States. That they have reason for distrust, even 

* Having doubts as to the reference in this part of Gov. Troup's letter, the Editor applied 
to Gov. Gilmer, who, in a note dated 27th Feb., 1859, says : " I suppose that the Cherokees had 
occupied, for an unknown time, the territory which they possessed in the upper parts of 
Korth Carohna, South Carolina and Georgia, when they became known to the Colonists," &c. 
And again : " Gov. Troup's expression, which you quote, refers, I suppose, to that part of the 
Cherokee territory which had, at one time, been occupied by the Creeks."— Ed. 



CHiP. X.] LETTER TO MR. FORSYTH. 289 

in the conduct of the United States towards themselves, is 
nndoubted. When they were willino- to cede lands, the 
United States would not take them. In the conduct of the 
United States towards the Creeks, they think they see 
abundant proof of the lukewarmness and indifference of 
the General Government in carrying into practical eifect, 
so far as concerns Georgia, the plans which they devised 
for the removal of the Indians. It is of no consequence 
that the Indians are deceived by appearances — the appear- 
ances would deceive any body. They see the Agent for the 
Creeks, well knowing the officially expressed "will of the 
Government, opposing himself to that will, holding coun- 
cils of the Indians for the very purpose of anticipating and 
forestalling the Commissioners of the United States, by 
inconsiderate and violent resolves, the same as those of the 
Cherokees themselves. When the treaty is holden at 
Broken Arrow, the Cherokees are present, by their emis- 
saries, under the eye of the Agent, busied to defeat, by the 
most wily machinations and contrivances, the objects of 
the treaty. They witness the failure of the treaty, and by 
these means. Is such a case explicable before the Indians? 
— the servant setting at naught the will of the master, and 
the master countenancing the servant in defying that will : 
the government itself, when asked for the resohition of 
these mysterious things, resolves them into a misconception 
of duty. On the renewal of the treaty at the Indian 
Springs, the like scenes are presented both to whites and 
Indians — the Agent professedly aiding the Commissioners, 
secretly undermining them, dismissing in the dead of night 
the Chiefs who had agreed to sign the treaty ; protesting 
the treaty, after having affixed his own signature to it as a 
witness, on the ground that these very same Chiefs did 
not subscribe to it ; announcing to his government that 
the treaty was in direct violation of its own instructions ; 
insinuating very strongly that improper means had been 
adopted to procure it, and denouncing the hostility of the 
Indians in the event of its ratification. 

Tiie poor Cherokees knew, as well as the most enlight- 
ened member of the Cabinet, that if a foreign minister of 
the first grade had dared the one- half of this, he would 
have been dismissed with disgrace. Yet the Agent, oppos- 
ing himself to his government, as it would seem, certainly 
opposing himself to the Commissioners appointed by that 
government, passing on to Washington for the avowed pur- 
pose of preventing the ratification of the treaty, meets a 
37 



290 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

cordial 2;reeting of his employers there, and when the Pres- 
ident, discrediting every word of the Agent, had submitted 
the treaty to the Senate — when the Senate, in like manner, 
trusting nothing to the Agent, and reposing confidence in 
the declarations of the Commissioners, had ratified it, he is 
permitted to depart for his Agency, if not with new demon- 
strations of afi:ection, without, so far as I know, the slight- 
est reprehension or blame ; and, what is worse than all, 
after having placed himself at the head of a party adverse 
to that which is now dominant, and which had recently 
ceded the country to us, he is appointed the guardian of 
tiie whole, to conduct to their new and distant home this 
hapless race ; to command their destinies through untried 
and checkered scenes, and to make his distance from the 
controlling power an absolute security against all scrutiny 
and responsibility. The only apology attempted by the 
Agent for any allegation of misconduct or aberration from 
duly, in these respects, has been — 't was not I, 't was the 
sub-Agent — 't was not I, 't was the Interpreter. The United 
States might possibly be the voluntary dupe of such shallow 
pretences; certainly not the Cherokees or the Georgians. 
Ask the Commissioners, if, but for the interference of the 
Agent, there would have been serious difiiculty at Broken 
Arrow. Ask them, if, at the Indian Springs, an almost 
unanimous concurrence of the Chiefs might not have been 
commanded, but for the counterplots and underworkings of 
the Agent. Ask any member of the cabinet, notwithstand- 
ing the farrago of resolves and protestations to the contrary, 
if he may not command a treaty, on a given day, npon just 
and reasonable terms, for a cession of all the lands claimed 
by the Cherokees. 

Be pleased to present a copy of this note to the Secretary 
of War. Upon the general subject, everything has been 
heretofore said which it was proper or becoming to say ; and 
I had resolved not to resume it, unless invited on the part 
of the Federal Government, or commanded by the Legis- 
lature of the State. The more recent events may not have 
been portrayed, before the present Cabinet, in the same light 
in which yon and myself cannot fail to regard them. The 
gentlemen who have recently- come into it, I know person- 

* The new members then recently appointed by Mr. Adams to pla^ies in his Cabinet, were 
Henry Clay, Secretary of State, Kichard Rush, Secretary of the Treasury, and James Barbour, 
Secretary of War. Mr. Southard and Mr. Wirt, the other members of the Cabinet, had been 
appointed Secretary of the Navy and Attorney-General, respectively, by President Monroe, and 
were continued in oflBice by President Adams. Hon. John McLean, also appointed under the 
previous administration, was continued as Post-Maeter-General ; but that officer was not then 
one of the Cabinet. — Ed. 



Chap. X. RECEPTION OF LA FAYETTE. 291 

ally, and will be very much deceived if tliey are not de- 
serving our highest confidence, as intelligent, upright and 
patriotic men. If they understand this matter correctly, 
they will see that it is not a question about some five or six 
millions of acres of land ; it is one of principle and of 
character, connected with the honor of the government, and 
therefore above all price. 

The people of the Uaited States, content with their po- 
litical institutions, ask nothing of their rulers but purity 
in the administration of their affairs — disinteredness, single- 
ness of purpose, for the public weal, sincerity and plain 
dealing on the part of all the functionaries, from the high- 
est to the lowest, fidelity to every trust, and strict accounta- 
bility in the fulfilment of every duty, to the exclusion of 
selfishness, intrigues, tricks, and devices of low cunning, to 
gratify party passions and subserve sordid interests, huck- 
sterings and barterings, and all the rest, which they will 
cheerfully leave to the mountebanks and jugglers to whom 
they appropriately belong. 

With great consideration and respect, 

G. M. Troup. 
The lion. John Forsyth, 

Washington City, 

It is time, now, to turn from scenes of agitation and strife, 
to contemplate, for a moment, one of a different sort — a 
holiday scene — a pageant never to be forgotten in the his- 
tory of Georgia or of the Union ; we mean the visit and 
welcome of the great and good La Fayette to our shores. 
Eeturning, after a period of nearly half a century, to the 
country which he had largely contributed by his valor to 
rescue from the grasp of oppression, and to set up and es- 
tablish as an independent nation, he was everywhere re- 
ceived with acclamations, amidst the booming of cannon 
and the most lively demonstrations of joy. Slowly pursuing 
his journey through the North, he turned his face toward 
the plains and cities of the South, and, on the 19th day 
of March, 1825, reached Savannah and stood upon the 
soil of Georgia. Pursuant to a joint resolution of the 
General Assembly, Governor Troup was there to welcome 
him as the guest of the State. As the General reached the 



292 I^IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

top of the bluff at the eastern end of the city, he was wel- 
comed by the Governor in the following eloquent strains : 

"Welcome, La Fayette ! 

General : 'Tis little more than ninety years since the 
Founder of this State first set foot upon the bank on which 
you stand. IsTow, four hundred thousand people open their 
arms to receive you. Thanks to a kind Providence, it 
called you to the standard of Liberty in the helplessness of 
our early revohition — it has preserved you, that, in your 
latter days, the glory of a great empire might be reflected 
back upon you, amid the acclamations of millions. 

The scenes which are to come, will be, for you, compara- 
tively tranquil and placid — there will be no more of dun- 
geons — no more of frowns of tyrants. Oh, sir, what a 
consolation for a man, who has passed through such seas 
of trouble, that the million of bayonets which guard the 
blessings we enjoy, stand between you and them ! 

But, enough — welcome. General ! welcome — thrice wel- 
come to the State of Georgia ! 

During his stay in Savannah, Governor Troup joined in 
the festivities of the occasion, and reviewed the squadron 
of cavalry. 

He was also selected to deliver to the Colonel of the 
first Eegiment, a stand of colors wrought for it by the lady 
of the Brigadier-General. The following was the address, 
delivered in presence of General La Fayette, the military, 
and a vast concourse of citizens : 

Colonel : I present to you, by command of Mrs. Harden, 
a Standard of Colors for the first Eegiment, worked by her 
own hands. It is a fine offering from the fair to the brave, in 
the presence of the veteran hero whom all hearts delight to 
honor. I am happy to be the instrument of unfurling them 
for the first time before the Eegiment. They are conse- 
crated by the fair donor and the presence of the ]^ation's 
guest. The hand which executed this beautiful work, 
has painted, in indelible colors, the emblems* which will 
guard them. Look on this picture, or on that — this re- 
pels dishonor, that animates to patriotism and to deeds of 

* The principal emblems were, on one side, the arms of the Sta<-e, the Constitutional arch 
being supported by three female figures representing " Wisdom, Justice and Sloderation" ; and, 
on the reverse, a bust of La Fayette, (in the old Continental uniform,) and 'which is being 
crowned with a laurel wreath by the American Eagle.— Eb. 



Chap. X.] MESSAGE AT THE EXTRA SESSION. 293 

ralor. They cannot be tarnished. Death before their in- 
glorious surrender.'''' 

[1825.] Pursuant to the Governor's proclamation, the 
General Assembly convened, in extra session, at Milledge- 
vllie, o-n Monday, the 23d day of May. There being a 
quoruin of both Houses present, the Governor, on tlie same 
day, sent ia the following message, which we cannot con- 
sent CO abridge : 

Executive Depaetivient. Ga., \ 

Milledgemlle, "IZd May, 1825. / 
Fellovy Citizens of the Senate 

and House of Representatives : 

In calling yon together, I have not been unmindful 
of the personal inconvenience and of the public expense 
which attend it. Consulting both, little will be submitted 
to your consideration disconnected with the main subject 
of your deliberation. 

The recent acquisition of our vacant territory in the 
occupation of the Creeks, is that subject, and the survey 
and appropriation the objects, which will claim y<oir 
attention. For the first, we are chiefly indebted vo the 
Commissioners of the United States, Colonel Campbel^ and 
Major Meriwether. Too much praise cannot be given to 
these gentlemen, for the firmness and intrepidity with which 
they met the most formidable obstacles, and for the untir- 
ing zeal and patient labor, with which they conquered them. 
That of this praise there can be no waste or misapplication, 
you will read in the various documents and correspondence 
connected with it, and which are submitted. You will 
distinctly see that the principal difficulties which embar- 
rassed them from beginning to end — which defeated the 
first treaty at Broken Arrow, and which were well nigh 
producing a rupture of the last, at the Indian Springs, 
proceeded from a quarter, the least of all to be expected — ■ 
from officers in the pay and confidence of the Federal 
Government, who, instead of rendering to the Commis- 
sioners the most cordial co-operation, had organized an 
opposition, thereby exposing to suspicion their own Gov- 
ernment, which,in justification of itself, was finally obliged 

* Gov. Troup accompanied La Fayette to Augusta; and, at Milledseville, entertained him, 
at the Executive Mansion, as the guest of the State. At the public dinner to La Fayette at 
thelatterplacs. Gov. Troup gave the following toast: "A union of uU hearts to houor the 
Kation'a guest— a union of all heads for our country's good."— Ed. 



294 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. S. 

to avow that the perfidious plots and devices contrived by- 
it, were unknown and unauthorized at Washington, at the 
same time the authors and contrivers were permitted to 
escape but with little observation, and certainly without 
merited punishment. 

The Delegation in Congress, always faithful to their trust, 
have seconded, by active and incessant labor, the measures 
taken by this Government to support not only this impor- 
tant right, but all other rights and interests of the State ; 
and, in the delicate and critical relations which these 
involved, have so deported themselves as to command the 
confidence of ourselves, and the respect of all who know 
them. 

In disposing of the territory thus acquired, it is recom- 
mended to you to consult the will of your constituents, so 
far as that will can be distinctly ascertained. The lands 
belong to them in joint and several property, and none but 
themselves or their immediate representatives can right- 
fully dispose of them. Recognizing this as a fundamental 
principle, you have, in the exercise of a sound discretion, 
to look as well to ulterior and remote, as to immediate 
interests ; interests which the people themselves cannot 
fail to appreciate and cherish, because they directly and 
equally concern each and every of them now, and their 
posterity hereafter. They are those of Public Education ; 
of Internal Improvement ; of relief from taxation, when 
taxation would be most required and most burthensome ; 
the efiiciency of a military system for defence, in providing 
arms and arsenals and all the materiel of war, for which 
no State onght to be dependent on another, and indeed 
every subject, which, in peace or war, can conduce to the 
safety or prosperity of the State, and requiring for its most 
useful and energetic application, the propulsive instrument, 
money. To dilate upon these topics, would be to consume 
your time uselessly. Your own wisdom will better supply 
the argument in support of each. Suflice it to say, that the 
accumulation of a fund for internal improvement on an 
extended scale, will, by its judicious application, so mul- 
tiply your resources, and augment your income, as to enable 
you, eventually, to replace that fund ; provide abundantly 
for all the wants of the State ; dispense with taxation ; and 
place you, in ail these respects, on a footing with the most 
favored of your sister States, who, with less means, have 
accomplished more. 

These are no idle speculations. The results are about to be 
realized in an illustrious instance, where a great member of 



Chap, X.] MESSAGE— CONTINUED, 295 

the Confederacy has made herself greatest by perfecting 
what nature had roughly sketched, and thus fulfilling, by 
a no very complicated process, the highest duties to herself 
and to God. Our physical advantages are scarcely inferior; 
and, when it is believed to be quite practicable to divide 
with her the trade of the Western world, our temptations 
cannot be less. Pre-supposing, therefore, that the system 
hitherto adopted, for the settlement of our territory, will 
be pursued, I advise that the fee upon the grant be fixed 
at a rate which, whilst it makes the grant essentially 
a donation, and takes nothing from the pockets of the 
poorest of our citizens, but what will be paid without in- 
convenience or complaint, will, at the same time, bring 
something into the Treasury, in aid of the general fund 
appropriated to these objects. To this the proceeds of the 
fractions and of any reservations you may think proper to 
make, will importantly contribute. 

Having advocated the present system from the beginning, 
there has been no reason to change any opinion formed of 
it. Men and the soil constitute the strength and wealth of 
nations : and the faster you plant the men, the sooner yon 
can draw on both. 'No new country has been peopled faster 
than the territory acquired from time to time by Georgia ; 
none more rapidly improved with the same established 
modes and customs of improvement. The speculations by 
which its principle has been vitiated, it is our bounden duty 
to discourage and repress ; they defeat the very end of it, 
because, whilst you contemplate the advantage of the 
poor, the speculator preys upon the poor, and fattens on it. 

Having foreseen that troubles might arise in the Indian 
country from the proceedings at Broken Arrow, and the In- 
dian Springs, I sought an early opportunity, after the first in- 
dications of them, to dispatch my Aid-de-camp, Col. Lamar, 
into the nation, with a talk for that portion of the tribe which 
had menaced Mcintosh and his friends with injury. This 
duty was performed entirely to my satisfaction, as you will 
perceive by the report of Col. Lamar. They professed the 
most friendly sentiments, both toward the whites and 
toward Mcintosh, and gave assurances that they were 
meditating harm to neither. It is believed, from recent 
information, that they acted in perfect sincerity and good 
faith, and that the subsequent departure from it was the 
result of the active and malignant interference of white 
men. In my solicitude for the peace and happiness of this 
afflicted race, who were about to leave us to try new for- 
tunes in a distant land, I issued the Proclamation of the 



296 I^IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

21st of March, which immediately followed the ratification 
of the treaty, and thus transcended the obligations enjoined 
by strict duty. 

Having their own pledge that the peace should be kept 
among themselves, I wished to see no interruption of it by 
the Georgians; and, honorably for them, there has been 
none. I verily believe, that but for the insidious practices 
of evil-minded white men, the entire nation would have 
moved harmoniously across the Mississippi. The massacre 
of Mcintosh and his friends is to be attributed to them 
alone. That chieftain, whose whole life had been devoted 
to Georgia as faithfully as to his own tribe, fell beneath the 
blows of the assassins, when reposing in the bosom of his 
family, upon the soil of Georgia; the soil which he had 
defended against a common enemy and against his own 
blood ; which he had relinquished forever to our just de- 
mands ; and which he had abandoned to our present use, 
only because we asked it. So foul a murder, perpetrated 
by k foreign force upon our territory, and within our juris- 
diction, called aloud for vengeance, it was my settled 
purpose, having first consulted the Government at Wash- 
ington, to have dealt out the full measure of that vengeance ; 
so that honor, humanity, justice, being satisfied, whatever 
stain may have been left upon our soil, none should upon 
the page of our history. 

But the Representatives of the people were about to as- 
semble, who would bring with them feelings and sentiments 
corresponding to the occasion, tempered by a deliberate 
wisdom and a sound discretion ; the task is cheerfully re- 
signed to them, and whatever in tlie last resort they will- 
thai: will be done. 

The consternation and alarm which immediately followed 
the death of Mcintosh, rendered necessary measures of 
precaution, as well for the security of the frontier as for the 
protection of the friendly Indirms, who, deserting their 
homes, fied,with their wives and children, before the hostile 
party, and presenting themselves destitute and defenceless 
at various points of the frontiers, asked bread of our hu- 
manity, and protection of onr arms. The Quarter-Masters 
were directed to supply the one, and our Generals ordered 
to afford the other ; and both at the expense of the United 
States, of which they had due notice. The orders r.nd in- 
structions to Major-Generals Wimberly, Miller and ,:?horter, 
with the correspondence, &c., are laid before you. 

The United States Government has been again advised of 
the earnest desire of the Government of Georgia, that the 



Chap. X.] MESSAGE AT EXTRA SESSION. 297 

line between this State and the State of Alabama should 
be run and marked. The United States answer to this last 
request, that it is a concern of the two States exclusively, 
in which the United States will not interfere. On the former 
occasion, as you will remember, the General Government 
declined a participation, and upon the allegation singly 
that the State of Alabama had not given her assent. The 
State of Alabama had, in fact, given her assent, and had 
sought, with much solicitude, the concurrence of Georgia. 
Very recently, her former resolutions upon this subject 
have been rescinded, and Georgia is left free to run the line 
with or without her co-operation, as she may deem best. 
The correspondence with the General Government, and the 
letter of the Governor of Alabama, are submitted. 

Our claims to the lands occupied by the Cherokees with- 
in our limits, as well as those on account of Indian depre- 
dations, provided for by the first treaty at the Indian 
Springs, are adverted to only to inform you of the actual 
state of those interests, and for this purpose the various 
papers connected with them are laid before you. 

Since you were last in session, much anxiety and con- 
cern have been manifested for all the interests connected 
with the Bank of Darien. The origin of the excitement, 
and consequent depreciation of the paper of that institution, 
may be considered fit subjects of investigation. The report 
of a committee appointed to examine the state of its afiairs, 
having been reviewed and adopted by you, left at the close 
of the session the solvency of the Bank indisputable. When , 
on a subsequent occasion, it became necessary for the Ex- 
ecutive to pass an order connected with this depreciation, 
and the administration of the finances, I did not hesitate so 
to act as to conform the order both to your expressed opin- 
ion and tlie practice of the Treasury. As no change had 
been made in the condition of the institution, I would 
suffer none to be made in the payments and receipts of its 
bills at the Treasury, until you should order otherwise ; and, 
whilst I would not permit any measure to be taken which 
would be construed into depreciation at the Treasury, I 
would sufier none that would have the least eft'ect to em- 
barrass the operations of the other institutions ; and this 
was the more proper, because the difiiculties of the one 
institution might be ascribable, in some degree, to remiss- 
ness or indiscretion in the management, for which it was 
certainly not entitled to favor, whilst the operation at the 
Treasury still continued favorable to it, inasmuch as, the 



298 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

receipts and payments being confined to Darien bills, and 
the receipts exceeding the payments, there would be a con- 
stant accumulation of such bills, and consequently a sub- 
traction, to that amount, from the circulation of the country. 

In every other State of the Union, where bank credit has 
been sustained, these institutions mutually aid and assist 
each other, and by harmonious co-operation maintain un- 
imj^aired the circulating medium of that State. Those of 
Georgia must profit of this wise example. Interest and 
credit are not to be found in rivalry and discord, and 
it is sincerely hoped and believed that, in this instance, 
conflicting opinions have been the result of misapprehension 
or mistake. The great institution of the United States 
keeps them all in check, and should, at the same time, keep 
them all in union. 

The expenses incurred by the reception of General 
Lafayette, amount to $7,198 32, as you will see by the 
accounts and vouchers which are exhibited. The Execu- 
tive had, in this instance, received an unlimited power over 
the public treasure, which ought never to be confided but 
upon very extraordinary occasions. It is due to the public, 
as w^ell as to the ofiicer charged with the disbursement, to 
institute a strict inquiry into the expenditure ; thus ex- 
acting, as far as practicable after the expenditure, that 
accountability which, in ordinary cases, ought to be secured 
before. The orders given to my Aids-de-Camp, who 
were charged with their execution, enjoined on them the 
strictest economy : and, all circumstances considered, they 
have not disappointed my expectations. 

Since your last meeting, our feelings have been again out- 
raged by officious and impertinent intermeddlings with our 
domestic concerns. Besides the resolution presented for 
the consideration of the Senate, by Mr. King, of New York, 
it is understood that the Attorney-General of the United 
States, who may be presumed to represent his Government 
faithfully, and to speak as its mouth-piece, has recently 
maintained, before the Supreme Court, doctrines on this 
subject, which, if sanctioned by that tribunal, will make it 
quite easy for the Congress, by a short decree, to divest 
this entire interest, without cost to themselves of one dollar, 
or of one acre of public land. This is the uniform prac- 
tice of the Government of the United States ; if it wishes 
a principle established which it dare not establish for 
itself, a case is made before the Supreme Court, and, the 
principle once settled, the act of Congress follows of 
course. Soon, very soon, therefore, the United States 



Chap. X.] EFFECT OF THE MESSAGE. 299 

Government, discarding the mask, will openly lend itself 
to a combination of fanatics for the destrnction of every 
thing valuable in the Southern country. One movement of 
the Congress unresisted by you, and all is lost. Temporize 
no longer — make known your resolution that this subject 
shall not be touched by them, but at their peril. But for 
its sacred guaranty by the Constitution, we never would 
have become parties to that instrument ; at this moment 
you would not make yourself parties to any Constitution 
without it ; of course, you will not be a party to it from 
the moment the General Government shall make that 
movement. 

If this matter be an evil, it is our own — if it be a sin, 
we can implore the forgiveness of it — to remove it, we ask 
not either their sympathy or assistance: it may be our 
physical weakness — it is our m^oral strength. If, like the 
Greeks and Romans, the moment we cease to be masters, 
we are slaves — we thenceforth minister, like the modern 
Italians, to the luxury and pleasures of our masters — poets, 
painters, musicians and sculptors we may be — the moral 
qualities, however, which would make us fair partakers of 
the grandeur of a great empire, would be gone. We would 
stand stripped and desolate, under a fervid sun and upon a 
generous soil, a mockery to ourselves, and the very con- 
trast of what, with a little firmness and foresight, we might 
have been. I entreat yon, therefore, most earnestly, now 
that it is not too late, to step forth, and, having exhausted 
the argument, to stand by your arms. 

Your fellow- citizen, 

G. M. Teoup. 

The reading of this document produced a profound sen- 
sation in both Houses ; and the message became at once an 
important topic of comment in and out of the State. It 
was not to be expected that the political party opposed to 
the Governor would say much in its praise ; whilst, with his 
friends, it served to increase, if possible, their admiration 
for the man and the magistrate. It was freely and un- 
sparingly commented on b^ ISTorthern journals, the conduc- 
tors of some of which professed to regard its author as the 
mad Governor of Georgia, 

The portion of the message which produced most excite- 
ment out of the State, was that which related to the ques- 



300 WFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

tion of slavery ; and it is due to the Governor and the then 
Attorney-General of the United States, that some special 
reference be here made to it. On the 18th of February, 
1825, Hon. Kufus King, of New York, laid on the table of 
the U. S. Senate, for " future consideration," the following 
resolution : 

'■'■ Besolvedly the Senate of the United States of America^ 
That, as soon as the portion of the existing funded debt of 
the United States, for the payment of which the public 
land of the United States is pledged, shall have been paid 
off, then and thenceforth, the whole of the public land of 
the United States, with the net proceeds of all future sales 
thereof, shall constitute and form a fund, which is hereby 
appropriated, and the faith of the United States is pledged, 
that the said fund shall be inviolably applied to aid the 
emancipation of such slaves, within any of the United 
States, and to aid the removal of such slaves, and the re- 
moval of such free persons of color, in any of the said 
States, as, by the laws of the States, respectively, may be 
allov/ed to be emancipated, or removed to any territory or 
country without the limits of the United States of Amer- 
ica." 

This, although not the origin of the slavery agitation, 
was certainly a bold movement in support of the fanaticism 
which has ever since disturbed the peace and threatened 
the integrity of the Union ; and fully justified the witheii'ing 
denunciation and haughty defiance of Governor Troup. 

The House of Representatives having requested the 
Governor to lay before it " the evidence on which he founds 
his remarks, in his message relative to the interference of 
the United States government with our domestic affairs," 
he returned the following message : 

Executive Department, [ 
Milledgemlle, 1th June, 1825. \ 
I had hoped that in submitting to the Legislature the reso- 
lution of Mr. King, the abstract from the government paper, 
the several resolutions of the legislatures of certain States, 
and the reference to the doctrines maintained by the 
Attorney-General before the Supreme Court at Washing- 
ton, in cases involving the question of slavery or no slavery, 
and had expressed my own opinions upon them, I had done 



Chap. X.] SPECIAL MESSAGE. 301 

enough. In clieerful compliance, however, with the ex- 
pressed wishes of the House of Representatives, I make 
this further communication. 

Even from the moment we became parties to the Union, 
notwithstandino; the guaranties of this interest hj the 
Constitution, eiforts have been made to render unavailing 
those guaranties, to make inroads upon the subject of them, 
in various modes, sometimes by open assaults, 'sometimes 
by covert acts, ecpially injurious to the interests involved 
as disgraceful to the parties inflicting the injury. Through- 
out tnis period and to the present moment, we have 
defended ourselves by memorial, remonstrance, resolutions, 
supplications, &c. All reflecting men had foreseen that 
these might serve the purposes of the times, because, as 
God would have it, for those times the strength and 
courage were with us. Now, the times are changed. The 
strength has departed, and they would destroy the interest, 
that they might destroy the moral principle which sustains 
it. The spirit which animates these disturbers of our 
peace, is of no ordinary kind — it is the same as that which 
rallied under the banner of the cross, and propagated 
religion by the sword — it sticks at no measures, it weeps 
over no distress ; but, believing all means justifiable and 
holy and consecrated, marches to its object without regard 
to age or sex, and wars even with the sleep of the cradle. 
Thisls the very spirit of fanaticism. But the other day, I 
sent you the resolution of the State of Delaware, formerly 
with us — now against us. Maryland, losing her interest, 
will soon follow her example. The resolution of Mr. King, 
preposterous as it is, is just as likely to succeed as any other 
silly thing. 

Mr. King, certainly one of the most able men in council 
that his country has produced, proposes to buy out our inter- 
est with our own property. Mr. King, in token of the liigh 
value set upon this special service, is sent Ambassador to 
England, to refresh his memory there with the law in Som- 
erset's case, " which is also a favorite one with our learned 
Attorney-General. The government paper at "Washington, 
daring more than had ever been dared, announces that this 



* Reported as Somerset vs. Stewart, in Lofft's Rep., 1. Chancellor Kent .says of it: " In 
the case of Somerset, in 1772, who was a negro slave, carried by his master from America 
to England, and there confined, in order to bo sent to the West Indies, he was discharged 
by the K. B., upon habeas corpus, after a very elaborate discnssion, and upon the ground that 
slavery did not and could not exist in England, under the English law." 2 Kent's Com : 248. 
—Ed. 



302 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP, [Chap. X. 

is the appointed time.* The Attorney-General, represent- 
ing the United States, says before the Supreme Court, 
in a ripe and splendid argument, that slavery, being 
inconsistent with the laws of God and nature, cannot exist. 
Do we want more, or shall we wait until, the principle 
being decided against us, the execution issues, and the 
entire property, put up at public auction, is bought in 
from the proceeds of our public lands ? This is left to your de- 
cision. The United States can choose between our enmity 
and our love ; and, when jon offer them the choice, you 
perform the last and holiest of duties. They have adopted 
a conceit, and, if they love that more than they love us, they 
will cling to it and throw us off. But it will be written in 
your history, that you did not separate from the household 
without adopting the fraternal language — choose ye, this 
day, between our friendship and that worthless idol you 
have set up and worshipped. 

G. M. Tkoup. 
Accompanying this message, was a correspondence be- 
tween the Governor and Col. Seaborn Jones. In his letter 
to Col. Jones, dated 6tli June, Gov. Troup said : 

" Be pleased to state if you were not present at Washing- 
ton, during the late session of the Supreme Court, and if, 
in a cause or causes depending therein, and involving the 
question of slavery or no slavery^ you did not understand 
the Attorney-General to assume and maintain the general 
doctrine that slavery could not exist consistently with the 
laws of God and nature, &c." 

In his reply. Col. Jones said : 

"I have just received your note of to-day, inquiring for 
what I heard from the Attorney-General of the United 
States, on the subject of slavery. I regretted very much, 
at the time the argument was made by Mr. Wirt, in an 
African case, involving the question of slavery, that I did 

* The Katio7ULl Journal, a paper then recently established, and understood to be the 
organ of Mr. Adams, had, a short time before, said : " The sovereignty of St. Domingo in 
the possession of the blacks, the freedom accorded to that description of persons in various' 
parts of South America, the incipient measures adopted by the English Government for the 
liberty of the slaves in the Britisli West India Islands, and the sympathy felt by all 
Christendom for the sufferings of that unfortunate race of beings, can only terminate in 
their liberation from bondage. Such an event, which will but remotely affect the pride, and 
not at all the safety, of the European nations, must necessarily have a powerful influence on 
the feelings and welfare of the United States. It is time, therefore, to look seriously to this 
matter, and to come to some definite resolution as to the. continuance or total abolition of 
tlavery among tcs," dx., tec— Ec. 



Chap. X.] GOV. TROUP AND JUDGE BERRIEN. 303 

not hear the whole of it. It was my good fortune only 
to hear a part of his argument, and I cannot say definitely 
and certainly that, in the part of the argument I heard, he 
did advance and maintain the position that slavery was 
contrary to the laws of God and nature. After his ar- 
gument was over, I certainly heard, in general conversation, 
that he had assumed such a position ; and, on the next day, 
when Mr. Ingersoll, of Philadelphia, argued the Portuguese 
claim for the claimants, he made his argument an answer 
to the one the Attorney-General had made in the Spanish 
claim, (on the part of the United States,) he distinctly 
stated that Mr. Wirt had laid down such a doctrine, and 
he proceeded to combat it. Whether Mr. Wirt did or did 
not do so, I am unable positively to state — but he was 
present when Mr. Ingersoll stated it, and did not object to 
the statement. I have the more distinct recollection on 
the subject, as I then thought that the Virginian and 
Pennsylvanian had changed sides." 

Besides the foregoing, the Governor stated, substantially : 
That a few days before the meeting of the Legislature, 
he conversed with the Hon. J. M. Berrien, Senator in the 
Congress of the United States, on the subject of our slave 
property, and the danger to which it was exposed by the 
repeated attacks of other States and of the United States : 
he said the crisis was an awful one, and that no time was 
to be lost in taking measures of defence ; he had very 
recently the best opportunity to understand the views of 
the General Government in relation to it ; that the doc- 
trines delivered by the Attorney-General, before the 
Supreme Court, were extreme, and of ,the most alarming 
character — neither more nor less than that slavery could 
not exist, being contrary to the laws of God and nature, 
&c. ; that he was engaged as counsel in one or more of the 
cases involving this doctrine, and that he regretted exceed- 
ingly that the reply had not been allowed him — he said 
the Legislature should take up the subject seriously ; that 
he (the Governor,) answered that he was determined to 
•present it in the strongest light, &c., &c. : that Judge Ber- 
rien adverted particularly to the great excitement against 
us, produced by these appeals both to the court and auditory. 

Mr. Wirt having afterwards denied that he uttered the 
sentiments imputed to him, it is, perhaps, due to the mem- 



304: LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

ory of Judge Berrien and that of Gov. Troiii^, that the fol- 
lowing correspondence should appear in the biography of 
the latter. It occurred before the publication of Mr. Wirt's 
denial, but was not made public until afterwards. 



My Dear Sir : I have seen, in the Georgia Patriot of the 
14th insfc., an article, purporting to be a statement made by 
you to the Legislature, of a conversation between you and 
myself, which occurred during my last visit to Milledge- 
ville, and cannot avoid expressing to you the surprise and 
regret it has excited. "When I saw, in your first communi- 
cation, the manner in which you had noticed the subject of 
the interference of other States in our domestic concerns, 
I was struck with the singularity of your having transferred 
(what I presumed you believed to be,) the substance of a 
private, unofficial conversation, to a public, official docu- 
ment, without consulting me to know whether your recol- 
lection of that conversation was accurate — whether I would 
consent to be brought before the Legislature in that manner 
— or, in fact, giving me the slightest intimation of your 
intention thus to present me to the public. When, subse- 
quently, a call for information was made on me by the 
Chairman of a committee of the House of Representatives, 
I was forced to the conclusion that you had given my name 
to that committee ; and, in my reply, written at the instant, 
after mentioning this impression, I proceeded to make a 
brief statement of what I had said. If that letter was 
shovv'n to you, as, from reference to some circumstances, it 
seems may have been the fact, before your statement, of 
the 6th June, was made, I have then to complain that you 
should have persevered in that statement, after my explan- 
ation to Mr. Lumpkin ; and with the disposition, in relation 
to me, which such a measure would manifest on your part, 
I should, of course, be relieved from the feeling towards 
you which now embarrasses me." I prefer to adopt the 
contrary conclusion. I am unwilling, perhaps unable, at 
the moment, to shake off the feelings springing from a 
friendship of more than twenty years ; and I cannot forget* 
that, under the operation of these, and from a belief that 
the public interest would be promoted by your success, I 
omitted no honorable exertion to aid your election to the 
office which you now fill. Under the combined infiuence 
of these considerations, I am extremely unwilling to do any 
thing of which your enemies might avail themselves to your 



Chap, X.] LETTER OF JUDGE BERRIEN. 305 

injury. But the situation in whicli I am placed before tlie 
public, by your communication, and subsequent statement, 
is one in which. I cannot consent to remain. I have made 
no such assertions as may be inferred from that statement. 
On the contrary, you have misunderstood both the tenor 
and object of my observations. The African case, in which 
I am of counsel with the State, having been the subject of 
conversation between up, I was naturally led to advert to 
the disposition to interfere with our domestic concerns of 
that port, which I thought had been manifested during the 
last winter at Washington. I considered the resolution of 
Mr. King as strongly evincing such a disposition, and I 
thought that the sentiments which I heard expressed, and 
those which I understood were expressed in the case of the 
Ramirez," and the conversations out of doors, to wdiich the 
argument of that case gave rise, were calculated to excite 
a restlessness among our colored population, which might 
be productive of the most awful consequences. I, there- 
fore, suggested to you, as I had done to others, my opinion 
that these consequences ought to be met, and would be 
most effectually averted, by concurrent resolutions of the 
Legislatures of the Southern States, declaring this subject 
to be exclusively within their own particular cognizance, 
and asking Congress to abstain from intermeddling with it. 
I spoke to you of the purport of the ai'guments of counsel, so 
far as I had heard them, and of those which had been ascribed 
to counsel whom I did not hear. I told you that I consid- 
ered the doctrines advanced, as alarming, and that, with the 
feeling which, as a Southern man, they excited in me, I 
should have been glad of an opportunity of replying, which 
the order of the discussion did not allow to me ; but I told 
you, also, that I w^as not present when the argument of the 
Attorney-General was delivered; that the Supreme Com t 
did not sustain these doctrines ; and I expressed to you no 
opinion that the government of the United States had any 
concern in urging this .discussion. I could entertain no 
such opinion, as 1 had been informed that the Attorney- 
General had, at a previous term, given up the case on the 
.part of the government, and that it was retained at the in- 
stance of a member of the Colonization Society. I had not 
the most distant conception that any observation of mine 
could have led you to think of intimating to the Legisla- 
ture that an appeal to arms might become necessary. I 

* Reported as the Antelope, in Wheaton's Reports of the decisiona of the U. S. Supreme 
Court, vol. 10, beginning at page 66. — Ed. 

39 



306 LIFE OF GEOEGE M. TROUP. [C&ap. X. 

had in view, simply, a decisive, but temperate, expression 
by the Legislatures of the Southern States, of their feelings 
on this subject ; and, so little did I anticipate such a course, 
that when you suggested the inquiry, whether you ought 
not to communicate the subject to the Legislature, at their 
extra session, I told you I thought it was unnecessary, as 
the regular session would occur before the meeting of 
Congress, and the Legislatures of other States would then 
be convened. 

With this view of the conversation which I had with 
you, and without insisting, as I think I might do, that you 
should not have drawn me before the public, unless with 
my own consent, I now simply repeat that I cannot agree 
to stand before that public in the attitude in which I am 
placed. If you can suggest any mode which I can with 
propriety adopt, by which I can retire from it, without in- 
jury to you, I shall be gratified. Acquitting you, as I do, 
unhesitatir gly, of any intention to misrepresent me, I regret 
very much that this misconception should have occurred at 
a moment when the circumstances may, by perversion, be 
used to your injury ; but the views which you have received 
from this conversation, and have communicated, to the 
Legislature, are so variant from those which I entertained, 
and which I have thought, and still think, best calculated 
to rally the Southern States around a cause which is com- 
mon to them all, that I cannot consent to diminish the little 
prospect which I have of being in any degree useful in the 
National Councils, by being considered as having originated 
them. 

Pray let me hear from you, soon, and believe me 
Yours, truly, 

Jn: MACPnEKSON Beeeien. 
Governor Troup, 

MiLLEDGEviLLE, 2d July, 1825. 
My Dear Sir : I received your, letter of the 28th ult., 
this morning, and am sorry that any misconception ot the 
conversation in relation to the slave question, should have 
occurred or given you the least inquieuide. The purport of 
the conversation on your part, was nothing, rs I understood, 
but a recapitulation of circumstances which occurred at 
Washington, of public notoriety there, as they soon would 
be everj^where, and the impression which those circum- 
stances made on your mind. I did not suppose you further 
acquainted with the views of the general government than 



Chap. X.] GOV. TROUFS REPLY. 307 

those circumstances disclosed, or tlie opportiiuities wliicli 
your presence there might aiford you of acquiring them, 
much less with any definite or specific projects which that 
government might have in contemplation ; and I distinctly 
remember you to have said that the decision of the Supreme 
Court had not sanctioned the doctrines of the Attorney- 
General, a fact very well understood when the message was 
penned. Indeed, in all these things you are at liberty to 
consult your own memory, as equally good with mine ; but, 
sufler me to say, you have adopted a very erroneous con- 
clusion in believing that an impression may have been de- 
si:, ned to be made, that the p^irticular part of the message 
to which you have referred, and which has given rise to so 
many and such liberal remarks, was the offspring of your 
suggestion, or in consequence of anything emanating from 
you. So far from it, the disclosures made by you in that 
conversation, formed but a small part of the matter upon 
which that part of the message was, after mature deliber- 
ation, framed. I assure you that I would not, on any ac- 
count, that you should participate, in the least degree, the 
responsibility of the adoption and promulgation of that 
sentiment — nor shall any bod}^ else. I claim both the idea 
and the language embodied there, as my exclusive prop- 
erty ; and, in the enjoyment of it, I do not see that there 
is much likelihood of my suffering interruption. Never- 
theless, it is a sentiment approved by every re-consider- 
ation of it, and one which will be sedulously impressed 
upon my children. 

That the resolution of Mr. King, and the sentiments you 
heard expressed, connected with it, and those which you 
understood were expressed in the case of the Ramirez, and 
the conversations out of doors, to which the argument of 
that case gave rise, were calculated to excite a restlessness 
among our colored population, which might be productive 
of the most awful consequences, and your considering the 
doctrines advanced by the Attorney-General and others, as 
you understood them, alarming, were all the facts of any 
importance, according to my estimate of them. It was 
well known that they were the views of the general govern- 
ment only, from which we had anything to fear ; and whether 
you expressed any particular knowledge of these views, or 
not, we were at liberty to infer them from the facts dis- 
closed. Neither in dictating that part of the message, 
therefore, nor in devising a remedy for the evil complained 
of, were you or any body consulted, or more than a due 
weight given to your disclosures. 



308 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

Reference was unhesitatingly made to that conversation, 
because tliat jou were a Senator of this State in the Con- 
gress of the United States, and it became your dnty to 
make known to this government whatever transpired at 
Washington prejudicial to its interests. Having sought an 
early opportunity, informally to do so, I thought you entitled 
to credit ; and, accordingly, at the call of the Legislature, 
submitted to it the paper to which you have alluded. 

Cordially reciprocating the friendly sentiments you 
express, 

I remain, very truly, yours, 

G. M. Troup. 
The Hon. J. M. Berrien. 

P. S. You are at liberty to use this letter as you please. 

G. M. T. 

On the 2d of July, 1825, Mr. Wirt addressed a letter to 
the Chief and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, 
to the Reporter, and to Thomas Addis Emmet, Esq., as 
follows : 

" In a late official communication by Gov. Troup to the 
Legislature of Georgia, I find myself charged with having 
.maintained before the Supreme Court of the United 
States, at the last term, the proposition 'that slavery, being 
inconsistent with the laws of God and nature, cannot 
exist.' Will you do me the justice to &aj^ in reply, 
whether, either your notes of argument, or your recollec- 
tion, impute that proposition to me, or any sentiment or 
opinion that slavery, as it now exists in the several 
States, could or ought to be abolished, or be attempted to be 
abolished, or interfered with at all by the authority of the 
government of the United States." 

We have not space for the full replies given to tliis 
inquiry. The following extracts may suffice. The Chief 
Justice said : 

" I have no recollection of your having uttered, in any 
form, the sentiment imputed to you. The impression on 
my mind is, that you denounced the slave trade, not slavery ; 
the practice of making freemen slaves, not that of holding 
in slavery those who were born slaves." 

Judge Washington said : 

"I feel no hesitation in answering, that no part of your 



Chap. X.] MR. WIRT'S DEFENCE. 309 

argument maintained any or either of these propositions 
directly, nor did the general scope of it warrant, in m}'- 
opinion, the deduction of any such sentiment." 

Judge Duvall said : 

"I answer, without hesitation, that I have no recollection 
whatever that you maintained the proposition imputed to 
you hy Governor Troup, in the argument of the cause 
before-mentioned, or in any other cause. ''"■ ""' * * * 
If you had made use of such an argument, it would not 
have escaped my notice. You contended that the slave 
trade is not countenanced by the law of nations ; that, by 
the existing law of nations, it is unlawful ; that these Afri- 
cans were under the protection of the law^s of the United 
States, and, prima facie, free by those laws, &c., &c." 

Judge Thompson said : 

" I have looked over my notes of your argument in the 
case referred to, and do not find that I have noted any 
such unqualified proposition being laid down by you. Nor 
have I the least recollection of your urging any such senti- 
ment in the sense imputed to you. And I am persuaded 
it would have made a strong impression on my mind, if 
you had endeavored to establish the proposition that 
slavery did not, at this time, legally exist in our country, 
or that the courts of justice were not bound to recognize 
its existence, and to respect and enforce the laws in rela- 
tion to it. And I think your argument could not, in 
justice, warrant a conclusion that yon intended, in any 
manner whatever, to call in question the laws of the South- 
ern States on the subject of slavery." 

Mr. Emmet (who stated, also, that the " recollections" 
of Mr. D. B. Ogden agreed with his own,) said : 

" So far as relates to what is there ('the official com- 
munication from Governor Troup,') imputed to you, I can 
confidently say that the statement is incorrect. * * * * 
You spoke of slavery in the United States, as an evil 
inflicted on the colonies by the mother country, and for 
which they ought to be pitied, and not blamed ; and 
though I cannot cite your words, I collected, from what 
you said, that you regarded it as an evil which must be 
submitted to. I am confident you expressed no opinion 
that slavery, as it noio exists in the several States, can he 
or ought to he aholished, or attempted to he abolished, or 



310 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

interfered with at all^ hy the authority of the Government 
of the United States. ^^ 

[The italics are Mr. Emmet's.] 

Mr. Wheaton, tlie Eeporter, said : 

" I have great pleasure in being able to state, both from 
recollection aud from my notes taken at the time, that 
neither of those propositions was maintained by you before 
the Court," 

JSTow, assuming it to be true that the Attorney-General, in 
no part of his argument, " maintained (in the language of 
Judge Washington,) any or either of these propositions di- 
rectly," and that the denial of Mr. Wirt, who was a Christian 
gentleman, is sufficient to show that he did not admit the 
right of the Federal Government to interfere with the insti- 
tution of slavery in the States, yet it appears equally clear 
that, in the case actually before the Court, it was entirely un- 
necessary for him to speak of " slavery in the United States 
as an evil inflicted on the colonies l)y the mother country.^ and 
for which they ought to he pitied.'''' Was not this declar- 
ation calculated to "excite a restlessness" to which Judge 
Berrien referred ? That Mr. Wirt, in the " ripe and splendid 
argument" which he delivered, used expressions which he 
ought ever to have regretted, and which he did regret, 
seems probable'; that some of his remarks were injudi- 
cious, is proved by the letter of Mr. Emmet. 

In the letter from which we have already quoted, Judge 
Marshall said : " You stated, in terms, that you had no 
authority to speak the sentiments of the Government ; and 
that the arguments you should use were to be considered 
as entirely your own." And the National Journal., Mr. 
Adams' reputed organ, and the paper in which Mr. Wirt's 
defence appeared, referring to this declaration, stated : 
" This declaration, we are told, was elicited by a paragraph 
which appeared in one of the papers of this city, on the 
morning on which the Attorney-General was expected to 
speak, intimating tliat the public could now have an op- 
portunity of hearing, through the Attorney-General, the 
sentiments of the Executive on the subject of the slave 



Chap. S.] LEGISLATIVE PROCEEDINGS. 311 

trade, and by a similar suggestion from one of the connsel 
opposed to him." Still, the inquiry remains : why, even 
in the face of these suggestions, this solemn disavowal of 
his " authority to speak the sentiments of the Government," 
if what he was about to say was only such as became a 
Southern man, and especially in a cause in which it appears 
the Government had no concern ? If Governor Troup was 
wrong in saying, of the Attorney- General, that he was one 
" who may be supposed to represent his government faith- 
fully and to speak as its mouth-piece," it does not thence 
follow that he erred in denouncing what he believed to 
have been dangerous doctrines publicly uttered by a man 
holding office under that government. 

We have given to this subject more space, probably, 
than it deserves ; and we dismiss it with the remark, that, 
whilst the occasion of the Governor's denunciation is re- 
gretted, that regret is diminished by the consideration that 
it afforded Governor Troup the opportunity of putting upon 
record, in an official form, the most eloquent of all his 
noble admonitions to the people of Georgia. 

The main object of the assembling of the Legislature in 
extra session, having been the disposition of the lands 
lately acquired from the Creeks, a bill for that purpose 
passed both Houses, and was approved by the Governor on 
the 9th of June ; lor the details of which, reference must be 
m de to the Act itself. Criminal jurisdiction over the ter- 
ritory was attached to the counties of Dooly, Houstoun, 
Pike and Fayette. 

The joint Committee on the state of the Eepublic, " to 
whom was referred the subject of the conduct of ihe Agent 
of Creek Indian affairs, in relation to the late treaty in 
that nation ; and also in respect to the murder of General 
Mcintosh and others of the Creek Chiefs," after hearing 
testimony, made a report, which was agreed to in the Sen- 
ate, 31 to 18, and concurred in by the House, 61 to 28, and 
approved by the Governor on the 11th June. In the re- 
port, the Committee said they did " not see, in the evidence, 



3l2 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

sufficient proof to justify them in presuming that the Agent 
ordered, contrived, or instigated the murder of General 
Mcintosh." It concluded with resolutions censuring the 
conduct of said Agent, in regard to the treaty, request- 
ing his removal by the President ; and, in order that " all 
due and proper proof of his delinquency" might be made, 
instructing the Governor to " appoint two or more fit and 
proper persons to collect evidence therein," &c., &c., and 
requesting the Governor to transmit to the President a 
copy of the report, &c., with the accompanying documents, 
or such parts thereof as were not then in his possession, 
&c., &c. 

On the Tth of June, Col. Crowell published a card or 
address to the public, dated the 3d. Speaking of the Gov- 
ernor, he said : " And now at his instigation the Legisla- 
ture have taken up the subject, and are, as I understand, 
examining witnesses against me, without apprising me of 
their design." After protesting against this course, and 
entreating a suspension of opinion, he added : " An Agent 
from the government of the United States is now here, 
commissioned with full powers to examine into all the cir- 
cumstances connected with it, and report to his government." 

During the same session, a resolution of thanks was passed 
to Messrs. Campbell and Meriwether, " for the firmness, 
perseverance, zeal and patriotism which they have displayed 
in procuring a cession of territory so favorable to the inter- 
est of Georgia." Of the Governor, the Legislature said : 
" Out thanhs are also tendered to his Excellency the Gover- 
nor, for his active and patriotic efforts in expediting the 
'settlement of said territory.'''' 

The Agent, to whom Col. Crowell referred in his card, as 
having been sent on to examine into affairs connected with 
the Indian Agency, was Major T. P. Andrews, who arrived 
at Milledgeville, in May, with dispatches to the Governor 
from the War Department. On the 31st May, he commu- 
nicated his dispatches, and, in his letter of that date, said to 
the Governor : 



Chap, X.] GOVERNOR AND MAJOR ANDREWS. 313 

" I presume you will be informed, by the dispatches now 
handed you, that I have been appointed by the President 
of the United States, to examine into certain implied 
charges against Col, Crowell, the Indian Assent, contained 



in your Excellency's letter to the President, of the 

ins't,, as well as others of a direct and specific character, 
made by Chilly Mcintosh and other Chiefs of the Creek 
ISTation, at Washington. To enable me to perform this 
delicate and responsible trust with effect, I have the honor 
to reipiest that you will be pleased to furnish me with any 
charges and specifications wliich you may have to make 
against the officer referred to, accompanied by any evidence 
in your Excellency's possession, relating thereto, or refer- 
ences to the sources whence such evidence may be derived," 
&c., &c. 

Ho also stated that he would exercise the discretionary 
power vested in him of discharging the Agent, should the 
charges, or information in possession of the Governor, de- 
mand it. 

The Governor replied as follows : 

Executive DEPAETiiENT, . ) 
Ifilledgemlle, ^Ist May, 1825. f 

Sir : Immediately on the receipt of your communication 
of this date, I proceeded, in compliance with the wishes of 
the General Government, to charge the Agent superintend- 
ing the affairs of the Creek Indians, with : 

1st, Predetermined resolution to prevent the Indians, 
by all the means in his power, from making any cession of 
their lands in favor of the Georgians, and this from the 
most unworthy and most unjustifiable of all motives. 

2dly. With advising and instigating, in chief, the death 
of Mcintosh and his friends. 

You are referred to the docnmeuts connected with my 
late message to the Legislature, and to the testimony dis- 
closed and to be disclosed before the committee charged 
wuth the investigation of the subject to which they relate, 
and which are submitted to you. 

Kespectfully, your obedient servant. 



G. M. Teoup. 



To Major Andrews, 

Special Agent of the U. S., 
Milledgeville. 
40 



314 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

The following is tlie dispatcli of which Major Andrews 
was the bearer, announcing his own appointment as special 
agent to inquire into the charges against the Indian Agent, 
and the appointment of Gen. Gaines to inquire into, and 
check, if possible, the troubles in the Creek country : 

Department of War, May 18, 1825. 

Sir : In answer to your several letters received at this 
Department on the 15tli and 17th inst., I am instructed by 
the President to express his deep regret at the deaths of 
General Mcintosh and the other Creek Chiefs, and the 
shocking circumstances with which they were attended. 
While your Excellency is understood to ascribe the cause 
of these events to the criminal conduct of the Agent, he, 
by dispatches received some few days past, states to this De- 
partment that your purpose of entering upon and surveying 
their territory, as made known by your proclamation, had 
produced in the Chiefs, who received it when assembled 
in general council, for the purpose of receiving their 
annuity, feelings of melancholy and great distress. Ex- 
ceptions to your measures were then taken by them : they 
declared their assent had never been given, and that it had 
not been asked. Those exceptions were communicated by 
the Agent in the letter above referred to, together with the 
request of the Chiefs that the Government would interpose 
its authority, and put a stop to the contemplated survey. 

Whatever cause may have produced the disturbances and 
bloodshed which followed so soon upon the breaking up of 
that Council, has now become a matter of very subordinate 
consideration, compared with the means necessary to be 
adopted to prevent their repetition. Remote from the the- 
atre of action, with but little information, and that uncer- 
tain, (for we have not a word from the Agent,) as to the 
extent of the designs of the Indians, or the scale on which 
their operations will be conducted, the President has deemed 
it advisable, and has ordered accordingly. General Gaines, 
distinguished alike for his military skill and for his discretion, 
now in Georgia, to repair forthwith to Milledgeville, for the 
purpose of consulting with your Excellency, on the measures 
proper to be adopted in reference to the actual posture of 
affairs on his arrival. To him a discretion has been given, 
if in his judgment the occasion requires it, to call on you 
for such portion of the militia of Georgia, to be placed in 
the service of the United States, as he thinks necessary ; to 
march, also, such portions of the regular force as may be 



Chap. X.] LETTER OF SECRETARY OP WAR. 315 

convenient, to tlie scene of operations, and to take com- 
mand of the whole. By his instructions, he will be ordered 
to repel any hostile attempt that may be made by the 
Indians on the people of Georgia, and to chastise them by 
measures of retaliation for such attempt, till their suffer- 
ings and submission shall entitle them to clemency. If 
their violence has been limited to their own tribe, the 
course to be pursued is not without its embarrassments. 
The Government of the United States, since its establish- 
ment, has, ill no case, it is confidently believed, forcibly 
interposed in the intestine feuds of the Indians. They 
have limited their interference to good offices and friendly 
advice. To depart from this policy, strengthened by time 
and the approbation of the American people, involves a 
high and delicate responsibility. On the other hand, to 
surrender the Indians, fi'iendly to the views of the United 
States, to the unrestrained ferocity of the hostile party, is 
too shocking to humanity to permit. Amid these opposing 
difficulties, the General is instructed to enter the territory 
of the Creeks, and extend protection to the friendly 
party, but not commit hostilities on the Indians, unless 
provoked thereto by acts, on their part, which m.ay jnstify 
such hostilities. A special messenger will be dispatched 
to Milledgeville, on Friday, at farthest, with General 
Gaines' instructions. 

The President, not yet being informed of the measures 
adopted by your Excellency, cannot, at this time, take any 
step thereon. Your promised communication will relieve 
him from this difficulty, and immediately on its arrival will 
receive his prompt attention. 

I am instructed to say to your Excellency, that the 
President expects, from what has passed, as well as from 
the now state of feeling among the Indians, that the 
project of surveying their territory will be abandoned by 
Georgia, till it can be done consistently with tlie provisions 
of the treaty. 

From the charges made by your Excellency, and the 
Deputation here, against the Agent; Major Andrews, pos- 
sessing, from his high character, the full confidence of the 
Executive, has been deputed to the xigency to inquire into 
these charges and to adopt the course, in reference to the 
Agent, which he may deem best calculated to promote the 
public service. 

Major Andrews is the bearer of the dispatches to Gen. 
Gaines, and, as he will pass through Milledgeville, if you 
have any facts calculated to criminate the Agent, an op- 



316 f^'IFS OF GEORGE M. TROTJP. [Chap. X. 

portnnitj will be fnmislied your Excellency to communieate 
them. 

I have the honor to be yonr obedient servant, 
His Excellency G. M. Troup, James Baeboue. 

Governor of Georgia, Milledgeville. 

The Governor replied, as follows : 

Executive Department. [ 
Milledgeville, June 3d, 1825. j 

Sir : I have received, by Major Andrews, your letter 
of the 18th nltimo. The dispositions manifested by your 
Government to do right in all the matters connected with 
the subject of my late communication, are only in ac- 
cordance with my just expectations. I am happy that, 
in the general, the measures deemed best appear to be 
appropriate and judicious. Pardon me for making an ex- 
ception. In searching the archives of your office, you 
will find, at divers times, and on various occasions, repre- 
sentations, made on the conduct of the Agent, all or any 
of which should have disqualified him as a competent 
witness against the government of the State of Georgia. 
On the recent one of the ratification of the treaty of the 
Indian Springs, yourselves pronounced upon that incom- 
petency in terms not to be mistaken. The Agent protested 
against the treaty ; the President submitted it to the 
Senate, and the Senate ratified it in contempt of that 
protestation. If a single declaration of the Agent had 
been accredited, the President would not have submitted 
it, tlie Senate would not have ratified it. The last of your 
prominent acts, therefore, in relation to this individual 
places him in an attitude before yourselves, which should 
have decided you to listen with great caution and reserve 
to any suggestions of his, connected with any subject 
whatsoever. Whilst, on the one hand, he presents him- 
self before you as an accuser of the chief of the gov- 
ernment of iieorgia, and the accusation is neither more nor 
less than that the measures taken on his part have been the 
only exciting causes to the mischiefs and crimes perpetrated 
in the nation ; and you, on the other hand, so far sustained 
him in this position, as not only to receive it willingly, and 
to specify it distinctly, but to make it the basis of a most 
erroneous construction of the treaty ; and in consequence of 
that construction, to address to me a most extraordinary re- 
quest of the President, afi:ecting important interests here, I 
must pray you to excuse me, wlien I say to you in answer, 
that I do not feel myself treated in a very kindly or very 



Chap. X.] LETTER TO SECRETARY OF WAR. 317 

generous spirit, and that, if treated in the most kindly 
and most generous, such an expectation wonld be pro- 
nounced at once as unreasonable on your part, and certainly 
not to be fulfilled on ours. Is it possible that the Presi- 
dent could have consulted the Indian treaty, and compared 
its provisions with those of the articles of agreement and 
cession, and, at the same time have indulged this ex- 
pectation ? Without troubling you with the argument, 
permit me to state the fact. By the treaty of the Indian 
Springs, the Indian claims are extinguished forever. The 
article is worded in the present tense."^" On the instant of 
the ratification, the title and jurisdiction became absolute 
in Georgia, without any manner of exception or qualifica- 
tion, save the single one which, by the eighth article, gives 
to the United States the power to protect the Indians in 
their persons and effects, against assault upon either, by 
whites or Indians. For this purpose, your powers are quite 
ample ; and, in proceeding to the survey of the country, you 
will only find aids and guaranties on the part of this govern- 
ment for the faithful execution of the article. iBeyond 
this you cannot pass. Soil and jurisdiction go together, 
and if we have not the right of both at this moment, we 
can never have either by better title. If the absolute 
property and the absolute jurisdiction have not passed to 
us, wlien are they to come ? Will you make a formal con- 
cession of the latter — ^whenandhow? If the jurisdiction 
be separated from the property, show the reservation 
which separates it — 'tis impossible. You have the same 
remnant of it in this case, as you have by constitution and 
treaty in all similar casef, where, treaties having guarantied 
the rights and privileges of aliens, those rights and privi- 
leges "find their protection under the supreme law of the 
United States, within the jurisdiction of the several States. 
If the President believes 'that we will postpone the survey 
of the country to gratify the Agent and the hostile 
Indians, he deceives himself. To these poor deluded 
men, who have been hostile in peace and hostile in war, 
and the opponents of the treaty, Georgia could make no 
appeal. From Mcintosh and his friends, who made the 
treaty, we sought permission to make the survey, and 
obtained it. Scrupulously regardful of the stipulation of 
the treaty, we asked them, in substance, if the survey 
would, in any manner, interfere with their convenience or 

* The first Article of the treaty begins, "The Creek nation cede to the United States all 
the lands," &c.— JEd. 



318 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

security, and they answered, no — a ready answer, because 
the survey would in fact contribute importantly to both. 

The frequent recurrence to the conduct of the Agent, may 
induce a belief that the influencing motives here are im- 
pure or tainted with prejudice— it is not so. As an individ- 
ual, no angry feelings have been indulged toward him, or 
any harm desired — as a public officer, the most indignant 
sentiments have been awakened from the beginning, because, 
as soon as I entered upon the duties of this office, it was 
known to me that he had come to the resolution to prevent 
the Indians from ceding any lands to Georgia, so long as 
I continued in it ; a resolution so ungenerous and unworthy 
of any officer, in any station, that I determined to employ 
all honorable means to effect his removal as absolutely 
necessary to the prosperity of the State. You ought to 
have removed him long ago, and thus have spared us all the 
evils which have followed your omission. 

Be pleased to present my respectful compliments to the 
President, and assure him of my good wishes and regards. 
The frankness with which it is my duty to communicate 
with him, can have no tendency to weaken them on my 
part, or to excite distrust of their sincerity on his. Even 
upon the subject* of intensest interest to us, upon which 
the opinions of the President are known, many allowances 
are made for the immeasurable distance which separates us. 
In treating it, I have used strong language, but he will not 
on this account believe that I make light of the Union. I 
would oifer up my life, with pleasure, to sustain it for a single 
day. The fearful consequences, constantly in sight, keep us 
in a state of agitation and alarm. I strive to stave them 
off; and it is for this that language is employed, sickening 
to the heart and most offensive to a vast portion of the com- 
mon family. Who can help it, when they see wise men 
engaged in a playfulness and pastime like this, indulging 
their whims and oddities and phantasies, and causing this 
Union to tremble upon a bauble ? 

"With regard to the expenses attendant on our measures 
of defence, of which you are instructed to say nothing un- 
til those measures are submitted to you in detail, I have to 
congratulate you and myself that they will be so inconsid- 
erable in amount as not to cause much trouble or anxiety to 
either of us. "Whilst I took the precautionary measures to 
make safe the women and children upon the frontiers, I 

* Gov. Troup refers here, of rourse, to the subject of slavery ; and, in the next sentence, 
to the " stand by your arms" part of hia then recent message. — Ed. 



Chap. X.] DOCUMENTS, &C. 3I9 

remember very well that we had been pleading at yonr 
treasury, for thirty years, for similar expenses incurred in 
defending ourselves against the same Indians. I feel much 
more anxiety about the expenses which may be incurred 
by the friendly ones, who have sought refuge within our 
settlements, which they are quite willing to defray from 
their own scanty means, but which justice and humanity 
require you to defray for them. 

With great consideration and regard, 

G. M. Teoup. 
The Hon. James Barbour, 
Secretary of War, 
Washington City. 

Accompanying the Secretary's letter to the Governor, 
were the following documents : A letter from Chilly Mc- 
intosh to the Secretary, announcing the murder of General 
Mcintosh and Tustunnuggee, and tlie destruction of his 
property, and asking protection for the friendly Indians, 
revenge for the murders, and indemnity for property 
destroyed, &c. : the answer of the Secretary, expressing 
sympathy, promising protection, and that the matter of re- 
muneration would be recommended to the favorable con- 
sideration of Congress, &c. : two letters from Chilly Mc- 
intosh and three other chiefs of the friendly party, to the 
Secretary — one asking for revenge for the blood that had 
been spilt, an investigation into the Indian disputes, and 
protection for the friendly Indians — the second, complain- 
ing of the conduct of Col. Crowell, the Agent, stating that 
the Agent " is not trusted by ns, and we do not feel safe in 
his hands." They said, further : " Col. Crowell has always 
been opposed to General Mcintosh since 1823, when he 
tried to have him broke as a Chief of the Creek nation, and 
threatened to destroy his property. He was offended at 
Gen. Mcintosh for refusing to give up a man named Stinsou, 
without an order from the head Chiefs of the nation. Stin- 
sou was afterwards delivered into the Agent's custody, and 
tried for selling goods in the nation without a license, of 
which he was acquitted by the Federal Court, in Georgia," 
&c., &c. It further said : " Col. Crowell was opposed to 



320 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

tlie -itreaty at the Indian Springs, and tried to prevent the 
Creeks from selling their lands to the United States. He 
sent William Harablj, United States Interpreter, to the 
Council, to say that he wanted to see the Chiefs, but was 
jealous of the Commissioners; He told them that they 
should not give any long answer to the Commissioners, but 
only say ' they had no lands to sell.' That the Commission- 
ers would threaten, but their threats would end in words, 
as soon as they heard from the government. Even after the 
treaty was freely agreed to, he did not cease his opposition. 
He sent a message by William Hambly, the Interpreter, to 
tell some of the Indians that they should go away across the 
line, that night, or they would be taken and shut up until 
they signed the treaty. This party went oif in the night, as 
they were told. The next morning three men were sent 
after them to know why they had gone away ; they told those 
men the message they had received from Col. Crowell, 
which was the reason of their going. One of these messen- 
gers, Ben Daulawza, is now in Washington." After other 
complaints, the letter ended : " JS"ow, sir, we beg our father, 
the President, to send an Agent who will be a friend to all 
the nation equally ; and one in whose hands we can feel 
safe to go west of the Mississippi. If Col. Crowell is 
continued Agent, we fear that the friends of Gen. Mcintosh 
will be sacrificed :" — ^also a letter from the same chiefs, to 
the Secretary, inquiring if Col. Crowell had received the 
annuity money, for 1825, agreed to be paid by the treaty of 
1821 at the Mineral Springs, and stating: '' Col. Crowell, 
at Broken Arrow, informed the Council that he had made 
an arrangement with the government of the United States, 
that every individual of the nation should receive an equal 
share of the money which was to be paid under the late 
treaty. If he did make this arrangement, the party of us 
going to the western country, will not get enough to pay 
our expenses. If Col. Crowell did make this arrangement 
with you, not one would go to the western country ; because 
they have no money to bear their expenses, and none 
to pay for their improvements. We beg also to know if 



Chap. X.] SPECIAL MESSAGE. 321 

the United States will not pay our expenses here, on the 
business which has brought us to "Washington. It is busi- 
ness in which the United States are concerned equally with 
the Creek nation." They begged to be informed, that day, 
what would be done, as they were to leave Washington 
next day. 

To this, the Secretary replied, the same day, expressing 
the President's regret at the rapture, and the death of Mc- 
intosh and others — that measures had been taken, which, it 
was hoped, would quiet disturbances and give security from 
future violence — that an examination would be had into the 
charges against the Agent, as well as the subject of the 
recent calamity, &c. — that such measures would be taken as 
should seem best calculated to reconcile the existing diffi- 
culties, to punish those who might appear to have promoted 
them, as might be in the province of the government to 
punish, &c. — that the expenses of their visit to Washington 
would be paid, on an approved estimate of them being 
presented, and that the request to have an Agent to 
accompany them in search of a country for their future 
residence, was granted. 

This correspondence was all dated the 17th of May, 1825, 
and, with the Governor's correspondence with the Secretary 
of War and Major Andrews, the foregoing abstracts will 
serve to explain the following message of the Governor to 
the Legislature, dated 3d June, 1825. 

The papers now communicated would have been laid 
l)efore you as soon as received, but, the measures to be 
taken in carrying into efiect the wishes of th.o President, 
depending on the arrival of Major-Gen eral Gaines, then 
daily expected, it was deemed best to withhold them until 
that arrival, when both the views of the General Govern- 
ment, and the measures consequent upon them could be 
fully disclosed. It being understood, however, that much 
public anxiety is manifested for their publication, they are 
transmitted to you. Ton will perceive by those views, 
that if the General Government, assuming the exclusive 
right to expound and carry into eifect the treaty of the In- 
dian Springs, shall persist in giving to it the construction 
which is to be found in the letter of the Secretary of War, 
41 



322 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROTJP. [Chap. X. 

and elsewhere, it would have beeii better for all par- 
ties that the treaty had never been concluded; for it 
is quite obvious to you, that, admitting the power and 
the construction, the execution of it may be indefinitely 
postponed at the will of the United States. Accord- 
ing to that will, we are not to survey the country, 
because the hostile Indians who opposed the treat}^ have 
also opj)osed the survey ; they continue to oppose both 
treaty and survey, and to conduct themselves in the most 
hostile and offensive manner. The hostile Indians would 
j)rohibit us from passing to and fro through the country, 
and the prohibition would be equally reasonable ; the act 
of survey, so far as regards the security and peace of the 
Indians under the treaty, is as innocent as the act of passing 
to and fro. Whilst, therefore, by the treaty we have the 
absolute title to the soil, and the absolute jurisdiction, with 
the reservation merely of temporary occupation by the 
Indians, and of power in the United States to protect them 
in their persons and eifects, the right of survey, even w^hen 
the consent of those who ceded the country, is denied to 
us ; and this denial founded on an assertion utterly desti- 
tute of truth, viz : — that the troubles in the nation have 
been caused by the act of this Government, which procured 
the consent of the Indians to survey the country. In the 
absence of all other testimony, to show that these troubles 
had their origin in other, and very different, causes, it is suf- 
ficient to inquire what assignable connection exists between 
the survey of the country and the hostility of the Indians? 
The survey could neither expedite nor retard the removal 
of the Indians ; the Indians were not certain that even 
with their consent the survey would be attempted. Surely, 
therefore, if this had been the cause of excitement, the 
Indians would have waited the event. It is conceivable 
that the cession of the lands might have produced hostili- 
ties — but failing to do so, it is inconceivable how the consent 
to survey them, which had no relation to their eventual 
surrender and abandonmeiit, could produce that effect. 
The object of the Government of Georgia, in procuring 
the consent, was not to settle the country one day 
sooner than the provisions of the treaty would authorize ; 
but, in surveying the country, to save the time consumed 
in that operation, to extend its laws over it and to settle it 
immediately on the departure of the Indians — and this was 
of the more importance, because the Government was to 
expect in a short time the arrival of their Civil Engineer ; 
and as that was to be the field of his first and most inter- 



Chap. X.] MESSAGE CONTINUED. 323 

esting operations, it was necessary to place liim there 
nnder the guardianship and safety of our own laws. But 
so it happens, that this act of survey in which no body 
before ever saw harm or cause of offence, is suddenly 
magniiied into an evil prolific of all other evils, and this 
merely because the Government of the United States is so 
informed by its. Agent — that Agent who stands conspicu- 
ously charged as the prime mover and instigator of them 
all — who opposed the treaty from the beginning — protested 
against it to the last, foretold the mischiefs which were to 
come of it, and is yet the confidential, trusty and impartial 
witness upon whose dictum the United States Government 
accuses the Executive Government of Georgia. The Execu- 
tive of Georgia v>ull not retort the accusation — it will not 
say that the Government of the United States is responsible 
in the sight of Heaven and of the world, for the crimes 
(if any) committed by the Agent — because the Government 
of Georgia is not in the practice of thus treating the Gov- 
ernment of the United States — but it must be permitted to 
say distinctly, that, upon the naked information and advice 
of the Agent, the Governm.ent of the United States has 
sufiered itself so far to enter into the views, and to adopt 
the feelings, of the Agent, in relation to the late events 
connected with the treaty, as to have given, already, ex- 
positions to two of its important articles most palpably 
erroneous and unwarranted by the letter or spirit of 
either. The one is of that article which cedes absolutely 
the territory, and therefore, of course, cedes the jurisdiction 
— the other of that which stipulates the payment of the 
money to the Indians. Of the first, enough has been said 
for a message ; of the second, it is sufficient to say that the 
United States Government has given such a construction 
to this article, that the hostile Indians, those which remain, 
as well as those which remove, will share equally with the 
friendly Indians, the money stipulated to be paid by it. 
The money is not given in consideration of the lands — the 
consideration of them is other lands, acre for acre in fee 
simple — the money is given expressly for improvements 
abandoned, losses sufiered by removal, and to defray the 
expenses of removal. That portion of the tribe which 
will not remove, is to share it with that which does remove. 
This, to be sure, is no concern of ours — but you will see by 
the letter of Gen. Chilly Mcintosh, that if this construc- 
tion is persisted in, the consequences may be of the most 
deplorable character — a gross breach of treaty on the 
one side, a consequent refusal to comply on the other — 



324 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

power enough on the one to enforce compliance — on the 
other, weakness, innocence, wretchedness and woes innu- 
merable. 

Permit me to add, that there is something strange and 
inexplicable in this conduct of the General Government to 
the Chief Magistrate of Georgia. On the 31st day of March 
last, mj^ application to the Indians for permission to survey 
the country, and my intention, if that application succeeded, 
to convene the Legislature, were made known to the Presi- 
dent. Although one communication at least was subse- 
quently received from the War Department, not one word 
was said in objection to the survey. If any had been made, 
I would have discussed it calmly and temperately ; and if, 
in the result, I had found myself in the wrong, it would 
have been a question whether, for other objects, an extra 
session should be called, j^ow that you are assembled, and 
in progress u|)on public aifairs of deepest interest, it is at- 
tempted most unexpectedly to cross and embarrass you ; 
but the Legislature is not to he frightened from its duty by an 
angry look. I invite you to proceed, therefore, in the course 
which you have taken, and, keeping strictly on the side of 
right, and within the pale of the Constitution and the laws, 
you will, under the most adverse circumstances, find the 
most cheering consolations. You cannot thus proceed with- 
out the countenance and support of your constituents, and 
I doubt not they will be readily yielded. If it be possible, 
which I do not permit myself to believe, that a certain 
person, filling a certain station, stands in the way of the 
peace and harmony which ought ever to subsist between 
this and the General Government, and on this account val- 
uable interests are endangered, that person will retire 
instantly, and with much more pleasure than he ever occu- 
pied that station. 

G. M. Tkoup. 

Before adjournment, the General Assembly adopted a re- 
port and resolution, to the effect that the running of the line 
between Georgia and Florida was not of sufiicient impor- 
tance to require legislative interference before the regular 
session ; that, in regard to the boundary line between Geor- 
gia and Alabama, it was a subject of much greater impor- 
tance, and required their immediate attention — that if an 
act '^ should be passed, as contemplated, for surveying and 

* Tliis Act was passed, and has been noticed. — Ed. 



Chap. X.] FRONTIER DISTURBANCES. 325 

disposing of the Creek country, it wonld become essentially 
necessary to have the line ascertained ; and that, as it 
appeared from the documents, the government of the 
IJnited[States and Alabama had been consulted and declined 
any agency on the subj ect, they required the Governor, as 
soon as practicable, to procure the services of some compe- 
tent person or persons to ascertain the boundary line be- 
tween Georgia and Alabama, according to the compact of 
1802, with the United States, notice being first given to the 
Governor of Alabama, that he might, if he should deem 
it necessary, appoint Commissioners to co-operate with those 
to be appointed by Georgia. 

They passed, besides those already noticed and others 
not important for insertion, a resolution, authorizing and 
requesting the Governor "to take, forthwith, efficient 
measures to protect the Georgia frontier against the 
depredations or encroachments of the Creek Indians, by 
calling out a sufficient military force for that purpose, if 
found necessary." 

This resolution was passed in consequence of a message 
from the Governor, dated Gth June, 1825, in which he 
said : 

" I communicate, for the further information of the Leg- 
islature, two letters this moment received from our frontiers, 
which indicate the urgency of interposing a sufficient force 
for the protection of our inhabitants.'' 

The letters conveyed information of hostile intentions 
which appeared to have been manifested by the Indians 
opposite the counties of Dooly and Early, creating alarm 
amongst the whites. The Governor promptly issued the 
necessary military orders for protecting the frontiers, and, 
on the 9th, sent in the following additional message to the 
Legislature : 

Before your adjournment, it is due to you to place you 
in possession of all the information received at this depart- 
ment, and, so soon as received, of the actual state of things 
upon our frontiers, and from which, as by the information 
hitherto disclosed, the most unpleasant tidings may be daily 
expected. Without adverting to the causes or origin of 



326 LIFE OP GEOKGE M. TROUP. [Ciup. X. 

them at all, I must say to yon that it is my deliberate opin- 
ion that the United States government will be directly 
answerable to Georgia for every drop of blood shed npon 
this occasion ; and I further say to you, what has been more 
than once said, that no State having pretensions to even 
limited sovereignty, ought to be dependent on another for 
the protection which is due from a government to its citizens, 
mucli less for that which, from the information communi- 
cated, seems to be nrgently demanded for our frontier 
inhabitants. It is scarcely necessary to add that there are 
no measures which you may constitutionally authorize, 
which I will not execute with promptness and energy. 

The Legislature adjourned on the 11th June, 1825. 

General Gaines arrived at Milledgeville on Sunday, the 
12th of June, and on the morning of the 13th had an in- 
terview with the Governor. On the same day he wrote to 
the Governor : 

Head-quaetees, Easteen Depaetment, ] 
Georgia^ June l?,th, 1825. f 

Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the 
correspondence referred to by your Excellency, in your 
verbal communication of this morning, representing the 
indications of liostility recently manifested by the Indians 
on the Western frontier of this State, numbered 1 to 4 
inclusively ; together with your instructions to Capt. Har- 
rison, of the 10th of the present month. Of this paper, 
which I return herewith, I have to request the favor 
of a copy, with such information as that officer shall com- 
municate, touching the execution of the important duty 
assigned to him. 

With the greatest respect, 
I have the honor to be 

Your Excellency's ob't serv't, 

Edmund P. Gaines, 
Maj-Gen. Com'g. 
His Excellency Gov. Troup. 

The Governor replied , the same day, enclosing a copy of 
his instructions, of 10th June, to Capt. James Harrison, 
commanding Twiggs County Cavalry, the substance of 
which was : that in carrying into effect the orders of Gen. 
Wimberly, he would be " careful to act strictly on the de- 



Chap, X.] GEN. GAINES AT MILLED GEVILLE. 327 

fensive, until circumstances shall arise to justify an opposite 
conduct ; " that if he should, on arrival at the frontiers, 
find that the Indians had committed no outrages, &c., he 
would endeavor to pacify them, by assuring them that his 
presence there was not to make war upon them^ hut to 
" protect our people and others within our limits, in their 
persons and effects, against any assault or inroads upon either, 
and to chastise those who shall be mad enough to attempt 
them ; " if, however, he should find they had committed 
hostile acts of unequivocal character, he should treat them 
as enemies, " pursuing them, if necessary, into the country 
occupied by them, and punishing them there," &c. — that 
if the Indians should merely have committed depredations 
on property, he should, whilst taking measures to recover 
the property, remember that the jurisdiction of the State 
had been established and its criminal laws extended over 
the country, so that the offenders could be seized and tried 
in the ordinary way : that the deluded Indians were ob- 
jects rather of pity than resentment; and that, finding 
them in the wrong, the officer would endeavor to keep them 
so ; that the officer should take the earliest occasion to 
inform himself correctly of the actual state of things, and 
that if it should appear expedient to do so, three com- 
panies or more of infantry or riflemen would be marched 
to his support ; that the money advanced should be ex- 
pended to the best advantage, proper vouchers taken so as 
to enable the State to charge the General Government 
with the amount, &c., &c. 

The day after enclosing, to General Gaines, these in- 
structions to Capt. Harrison, Gov. Troup wrote to the 
former, as follows : 

It may be important to you to know, before you com- 
municate with your Government and proceed to meet the 
Indians in convention, that the laws of Georgia are already 
extended over the ceded country, and of course that it is 
my bounden duty to execute them there. The statutory 
provision on this subject will be found in the papers of the 
morning, and in the act entitled "An Act to dispose of and 
distribute the lands lately acquired," &c. 



828 LIFE OP GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

The day previously, lie had written to Gen. Gaines, and 
said: 

In the course of the desultory and informal communica- 
tion with you of to-day, my desire was intimated that the 
line between this State and Alabama should be run as 
early as possible, and I requested the favor of you to make 
known to your Government this desire, and without 
delay. A letter will be immediately disj^atched to the 
Governor of Alabama, to apprise him of the resolution of 
the Government of Georgia to run that line, and to ask his 
concert and co-operation. If that concert and co-opera- 
tion be refused, we will proceed to run the line without 
them, as we will also proceed in due time to make the survey 
of the lands within our limits, disregarding any obstacles 
which may be opposed from any quarter. You will see, 
therefore, how highly important it is that upon these points 
the two Governments should understand each other imme- 
diately. 

In his letter to the Governor of Alabama, written 14t]i 
June, Gov. Troup said : 

The enclosed resolution of the late Legislature will in- 
form you that the Executive of Georgia is charged with 
the running of the line dividing this State and Alabama. 
As it is more than probable that I will take ineasures to 
carry their wishes into effect, very soon after the U. S. 
Government shall have had opportunity to quiet the dis- 
turbances which prevail in the Indian country ; and as it 
is very desirable that the Government of Alabama shall 
harmoniously co-operate with that of Georgia in the ex- 
ecution of the work, I will thank you to inform me whether 
you feel yourself authorized to appoint Commissioners on 
your part to meet the Commissioners of Georgia, so that 
the operation may be a conjoint one, and satisfactory in 
its results to both parties. 

To this letter, Governor Pickens, of Alabama, replied, on 
3d of July, that he was " altogether unauthorized to appoint 
Commissioners or otherwise to co-operate in the desired 
work" — that the omission of the Legislature to act in the 
premises was not owing to any indifference to participating 
in the operation, or "indisposition to co-operate liber- 
ally and harmoniously in the execution of the work. 



Chap. X.] GEORGIA AND ALABAMA LINE. 329 

whenever any practical benefit to either State might be 
promised." He further stated that until very recently the 
country on both sides the proposed line, was, for its whole 
extent, within the territory allotted to the Creeks and 
Cherokees, and for many months yet must continue in their 
occupancy, and that up to the period of the adjournment 
of the Legislature, no disposition for a cession of land had 
been evinced by either tribe ; that, a treaty of cession hav- 
ing now been made, he felt assured the Legislature of 
Alabama would, at its next session in November, act with 
promptness in the premises, and presumed that action then 
would " be in very convenient season to meet the views of 
the Government of Georgia," &c,, &c. 

Governor Troup replied, on 10th August, and said : 

" In compliance with the wishes expressed by your 
Excellency, I will cheerfully postpone the operation until 
ISTovember, confidently relying on the assurance that the 
Legislature of Alabama will, on its first meeting, take 
prompt measures to co-operate with Georgia in the execution 
of the work." 

^To the Governor's xctter of the 13th June, Gen. Gaines 
replied, from his " Head Quarters" at Milledgeville, June 
14th, 1S25, and, amongst other things, said : 

Your letter, which I shall without delay refer to the De- 
partment of War, announces your intention to cause the 
line to be run between this State and Alabama, and to 
survey the public land of the State within the late ceded 
territory. LTpon the last mentioned subject, I am distinctly 
authorized to state to the Indians, that the President of the 
United States has suggested to Governor Troup the neces- 
sity of his abstaining from entering into and surveying 
the ceded land, until the time prescribed by the treaty for 
their removal. 

There is, perhaps, no principle of national law better 
established, or more universally admitted, than that the 
contracting parties to a treaty possess the right, and, in a 
case like the one in question, the exclusive right of ex- 
pounding and carrying into eftect such treaty. 

The decision of the President in this case must govern 
me in my intended conference with the Indians : and this 
42 



330 lull's OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. X. 

conference must necessarily take place before, the subject 
can be submitted to the President ; nor is it probable that, 
if it were submitted, it would undergo any change. 

I cannot, therefore, but express a confident hope that 
your Excellency may see the propriety of abstaining from 
the proposed survey, both of the boundary line and of the 
land within the late ceded territory, until the period arrives 
at which the removal of the Indians is required. 

Immediately on receipt of this letter, Governor Troup 
addressed a communication to General Gaines, dated 15th 
June, in which he said : 

I have this moment had the honor to receive your com- 
munication of the 14:th inst., on the subject of the survey 
of the ceded country and the running of the dividing line 
between Alabama and Georgia, and in which you request 
that, in conformity with the expressed will of your govern- 
ment, both the survey and the running of the line may be 
forborne " until the period arrives at which the removal of 
the Indians is required," 

It would give me great pleasure to be able to comply 
with any request made by yourself or* your government. 
You would make none that did not, to your apprehensions, 
seem reasonable and proper. As, however, there exist 
two independent parties to the question, each is permitted to 
decide for itself, and, with all due deference to yours, I must 
be permitted to say, that my apprehension of the right and 
of the wrong leads me to the opposite conclusion — the con- 
clusion to which the Legislature of Georgia, upon mature 
reflection, recently arrived by an almost unanimous voice, 
and which was made the foundation of my late communi- 
cation to .the Secretary of War, and my more recent one to 
you upon the same subject. I would deeply lament if any 
act proceeding from myself, should cause the least embar- 
rassment to yourself or your government, especially con- 
sidering the critical relations in which the United States 
stand to the Indians, and the great interest which the gov- 
ernment of Georgia feels in their early and satisfactory 
adjustment ; but it cannot be expected by your government, 
that important interests are to be surrendered, and rights 
deemed unquestionable, abandoned by Georgia, because of 
any embarrassment which may arise in the intercourse and 
negotiations between the United States and Indians. 1 set 
too just a value on your high character, to believe that you 



Chap. X.] LETTER TO GEN. GAINES. 331 

would willingly create tlism. I am equally persuaded that 
none will be suffered to exist whicli can with propriety be 
removed ; and I know you will pardon me when I take the 
liberty of saying, that those to which you refer ought not 
to exist for a single moment. Upon every principle and 
j)ractice of diplomacy, the particular instruction of your 
government, which has given rise to these embarrassment?, 
ought at this moment to be taken and held as no instruction 
at all ; for it is now known to you, that what purports to be 
an instruction, was given upon information which was be- 
lieved to be true, but which has turned out to be false ; and 
the presumption is irresistible, that, the state of things 
being changed, your government so far from desiring to 
press the execution, would gladly withdraw the instruction, 
and that, without any, the least responsibility, you are at 
perfect liberty'- to consider it withdrawn. It is not for me 
to instruct, but to derive instruction from you in everything 
connected with the military art ; and you larowas well as I, 
that no principle is better settled than the one which justi- 
fies disobedience to positive orders, under a change of cir- 
cumstances. I say that the instruction had its origin singly 
in a falsehood imposed upon your government by its own 
Agent ; and that, but for that falsehood, the instruction 
would not have been given. You have the proof in com- 
mon sense, and in the documents and evidence connected 
with the late disturbances — if you want more proof, look 
into the gazettes of yesterday, where you find a Coun- 
cil of hostile Indians assembled by the Agent, jDroclaiming 
by acclamation his innocence of the death of Mcintosh, 
because that death followed not from the survey but the law 
of the nation. 

Your Government is informed by the Agent, that the 
hostile Indians are in array against us, because the Gov- 
ernment of Georgia interfered to procure the consent to 
the survey. The same Indians testify to the falsehood of 
the declaration ; and the dilemma is, that if the Agent is to 
be believed in the one case, the Indians cannot in the 
other. You see, therefore. Sir, plainly, the result — the 
Government of the United States, identifying itself in 
all things with the Agent, assumes for granted what is 
false ; issues, in consequence thereof, a peremptory order 
to this Government to forbear an act which it feels it is 
its right and its duty and interest to perform. The falsity is 
made known to the oiScer instructed to carry that order 
into efiect — the officer feels it to be his duty to proceed in 
the execution of the order, notwithstanding tiie change of 



332 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap, X. 

circumstances which produced it. On the part of the 
Government of Georgia, the will of its highest constituted 
authority has been declared, upon the most solemn deliber- 
ation, that the line shall be run and the survey executed. 
It is for you, therefore, to bring it to the issue — it is for me 
only to repeat that, cost what it will, the line will be run 
and the survey effected. The Government of Georgia 
will not retire irora the position it occupies, to gratify the 
Agent or the hostile Indians ; nor will it do so, I trust, be- 
cause it knows that, in consequence of disobedience to an 
unlawful mandate, it may very soon be recorded that 
"Georgia was." 

Suffer me to say, also, that your Government has acted 
very precipitately and unadvisedly in this affair : after 
receiving notice of my intention to make the survey, it 
interposed no objection, though it had time to do so. A con- 
siderable interval elapsed, and it receives false information 
from the Agent, upon which it issues its peremptory order 
— soon after, it receives further false information from the 
same Agent, upon which it issues other orders confirmatory 
of the first, and which you seem to consider final. 

But for my direct and active interference, hostilities would 
have immediately followed the death of Mcintosh, and of 
a character so inveterate as to put at defiance any interfer- 
ence whatever, even on your part. Your powers, not your 
influence, might have been availing, to be sure, but your 
power was not here ; and for preserving this peace you 
know what a respectful testimonial I have of the thanks of 
your Government, couched in the most delicate and com- 
plimentary terms. 

The suggestion you make in derogation of our claim to 
participate in the construction or execution of the treaty, 
giving to that suggestion its utmost force, is merely that 
we are not nominatly parties to the treaty — whilst the answer 
to it is, that we are party in interest deeper tenfold than 
they who appear upon the paper, and that the paper, in 
virtue of another paper to which we are parties, both nom- 
inally and in interest, passed a vested right of soil and of 
jurisdiction to Georgia, which none but the great Jehovah 
can divest. 

You will be pleased to understand that there is no incli- 
nation here to urge hastily either the survey or the running 
of the line, so as to interfere in the least with the measures 
to be taken to pacify and tranquilize the Indians. On the 
contrary, all the facilities we can give for this object, will 
be readily afforded ; but it is believed that in reasonable 



Chap. X.] INSTHUCTIONS TO COMMISSIONERS. 333 

time this liappy result can, with wise and prudent measures, 
of which your special Agent was advised yesterday, be easily 
accomplished ; but never to be accomplished if the con- 
dition of that accomplishment be the abandonment of the 
survey and running of the line. 

Wliat, in our verbal conferences, had been promised, is 
now repeated, that the military requisitions which, in com- 
pliance with your instructions, you may think proper to 
make upon the Government of Georgia, will be promptly 
attended to, and the force placed under your command with 
the least possible delay. The implicit reliance in your high 
sentiments of honor, is my sufficient security that, that force, 
if it could, will in no event be employed against us. 

On the 11th of June, the Governor had written to Messrs. 
Warren Jourdan, William W. Williamson, Seaborn Jones 
and William H. Torrance, informing them of their appoint- 
ment, under authority of the resolution of the Legislature, 
to receive and take testimony in the case of the Agent for 
Indian affairs. He said : " as the party concerned disclaims 
the authority of the State to interfere, it is not to be presumed 
that application will be made to you for leave to cross-ex- 
amine. Should, however, such application be made, you 
will not hesitate to grant it, giving timely notice of persons 
to be examined, and the time and place of such examina- 
tion," &c., &c. 



334 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XL 



CHAPTER XL 



Canvass for Governor — Gov. Troup and Gen. Glarh rival Candi- 
dates — Political excitement — Indian difficxdties continued — 

Gen. Gaines and Major Andreios — Governor' s correspondence 
with them and with the President, Secretary of War, &c. — 
Result of election for Governor — Governor's Inaugural, and 
Message to the Legislature — Action of the Legislature — Neio 

Counties laid out, &c., &c. 



On the 5t]i day of April, 1825, thfe following announce- 
ment appeared in tlie Georgia Journal, a leading newspaper 
published at Milledgeville, and possessing the confidence 
of the Governor : 

" 11^" Gov. TROUP is a candidate for re-election to the 
office he now holds. 

" 1^" We are requested to state that Geu. CLAEK is a 
candidate for the office of Governor. " 

The canvass had now opened, and the contest was to be 
the hottest ever witnessed in Georgia, and the excitement 
more intense than upon any other occasion of a civil na- 
ture, unless, perhaps, that which sprang up out of the 
Yazoo fraud. In consenting to an election by the Legisla- 
ture, in 1823, Gov. Troup had so far put himself at the 
service of his friends, as to impose upon himself a sort of 
moral obligation to yield to their wishes in a canvass be- 
fore the people. Besides, it was due to himself not to 
retire from a contest, the great interest and excitement of 
which had grown out of his own firm and manly adminis- 
tration of the affairs of the State. Whilst he had no par- 
ticular ambition to gratify by a re-election to the office of 
Chief Magistrate, it was natural that he should desire to 
see his measures of government passed upon with approba- 
tion by the people whom he had so faithfully served ; and 
he had too little fear of defeat, and too much confidence in 



Chap. XL] GOV. TROUP AND GEN, CLARK. 335 

liis fellow-citizens, to decline a contest so mucli desired 
by his friends, and so proper under all tlie circnmstances 
by which he was encompassed. 

Nothing was more natural than that the opposition should 
bring out their well-tried and veteran leader. He had been 
Governor two consecutive terms ; but what of that's There 
was no legal, no constitutional ineligibility. Gen. Clark 
had given his name to the party opposed to Mr. Crawford 
and his friends, long before Col. Troup had been named in 
connection with gubernatorial honors, or had evinced his 
remarkable talents for executive duti es. " Troup and Clark " 
now rang through the State ; and, whilst it was clear that the 
friends of the former had nothing to rely upon, in sup- 
port of their chief, but his talents, virtues and great public 
services, it was certain that in the latter they had to en- 
counter a foeman, who, to abilities of no ordinary sort, and 
long public services in the field and at the council-board, 
had the faculty of winning support where less sagacious 
politicians would have failed. Whatever faults Gen. Ciark 
may liave had — and who is free from them ? — he was never 
charged with want of fidelity to his friends, or the lack of 
power to conciliate wliere success was possible by worthy 
means. Hence, he was beloved by his party, and was a dan- 
gerous competitor with any rival. 

Before the close of the contest. Gov. Troup was running im- 
der and against a combination of circumstances that seemed 
little favorable to his re-election. Independently of the 
great popularity of his rival, he had to contend against 
the sympathies and probably the patronage of the Federal 
Executive ; many weak-minded and timid persons thought 
his administration too bold ; many honest men, whilst they 
could not, in calm moments, believe his motives to be 
impure, yet thought or feared he might precipitate a crisis, 
that would result in civil strife between the United States 
and Georgia. Besides having to encounter much of the 
hereditary hatred which the Clark party bore to Mr. 
Crawford and his friends, he had to stand tlie brunt of all 
the opposition which his controversy with General Gaines, 



336 I^I^E OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

Major Andrews and Col. Crowell, had engendered. Add 
to all this, his contempt for those little arts and blandish- 
ments which politicians know so well how to use, and 
by which temporary success is often gained — ^and, to a 
casual observer, his chance might have seemed hopeless. 
But this was .only the outside view. He had then had 
much experience in the public service, had never disap- 
pointed public expectation ; and though it could not be 
said of him, as some one has remarked of Mr. Jefferson, 
that lie never made a sj}eec7i, founded a sect, or fought 
a tattle; yet, like that great statesman, he had rarely 
misjudged men or measures, and could show a political 
record, as remarkable for its consistency, as it was untar- 
nished by any, the slightest taint of dishonor. If ever 
a statesman, in our times, passed through a long public 
life, with clean hands and a good cnscience, that man was 
George M. Troup. 

We proceed now to the course of the Governor in regard 
to the Agent of Indian affairs, and his correspondence with 
the special Agent on that subject. On the Sth of June, he 
wrote to Major Andrews to learn whether he had not, in a 
certain conversation, stated that the evidence submitted to 
him did not furnish even probable cause to suspect the 
Indian Agent as guilty under the charges exhibited against 
him in the Governor's letter of 31st May, &c. 

In his reply, the same day. Major Andrews denied the 
justice of the inference deduced from that conversation, and 
stated his recollection of the result of that conversation to 
be, that, until he was furnished with the documents and evi- 
dence referred to in the Governor's letter of 31st May, he 
did not consider himself at liberty to form any opinion, 
even as to the propriety of suspending the Agent, &c. 

He added : 

I beg the attention of your Excellency to my letter, of 
the 31st May, by which you will perceive I expected to be 
able to furnish the Agent, in case his suspension was decided 
on, with a copy of the charges and specifications made 
against him, immediately on his being suspended, that ''he 
mio;ht be able to defend himself before his government 



Chap. XL] LETTERS TO MAJOR ANDREWS. 33 Y 

witli as little delay as possible ; " and that his suspension 
wonld also depend on the present state of excitement among 
the Indians. This course, your Excellency will do me the 
justice to believe, is in strict accordance with the instruc- 
tions of my Government. I have delayed all proceedings, 
(even to a formal acknowledgment of the receipt of your 
letter of the 31st ultimo,) waiting to be furnished with the 
documents and evidence promised in it. So soon as I shall 
be honored by its receipt, (if General Gaines shall have 
arrived,) I will immediately proceed to execute the 
intentions of the President, as made known to your Excel- 
lency. 

On the 13th of June, the Governor wrote a letter to 
Major Andrews, in which he said : 

" In compliance with a resolution of the Legislature of 
the State of Georgia, I place you in possession of the 
report of a committee, the resolutions which follow, and 
the evidence which supports them, in the case of the Agent 
for Indian Affairs, whose conduct, in connection Avith the 
late disturbances in the Creek nation, has been recently a 
subject of investigation before that Legislature. 

He wrote again, as follows, on the 14tli : 

In the conversations held with yourself and Gen. 
Gaines, in relation to the objects of your mission, you 
were pleased to express a desire to receive from myself 
any views or suggestions which might usefully contribute 
to the results which were most desirable. These, in pass- 
ing, have been hitherto frankly given. As it is determined 
that one or both of you will proceed to attend the convention 
of the Indians about to be holden at Broken Arrow and the 
Indian Springs, it becomes my duty to disclose- to you, in a 
special manner, the opinions entertained of this lirst and 
most important movement, so that, if miscarriage follow, the 
councils of Georgia will share in no degree the responsi- 
bility of that miscarriage. It is known to be one of your 
objects to elicit from the convention the truths connected 
with the late and present disorders in the nation — a devel- 
opment which the councils of Georgia cannot fail to regard 
with very deep concern. It has been more than once 
asked of you, therefore, if, preparatory to this movement, 
it did not seem to you as indispensable to suspend the 
Agent from his functions, under the authority vested in you 
by your Government. The answers given have been re- 
ceived with pain and regret, because they indicated an 
43 



338 I^^FE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XL 

intention to forbear the exercise of the power, at least for 
the present, whilst it is plainly foreseen that the present is 
the only moment at which the exercise of it would be of 
any value to you, or to us, in the fulfilment of the objects 
of your mission, and for this very obvious reason : the 
Agent, in virtue of his official power, exercising a control- 
ling influence over one portion of the nation, has already 
assembled that portion, and you see in the morning's paper 
by what a formidable and imposing array of Chiefs he 
stands exculpated and acquitted. ISTow, Sir, I appeal to 
your good sense to inform me of what avail will be the 
contemplated convocation and catechising of the Indians, 
the Agent holding to his commission and wielding his 
accustomed powers ? Is it to be believed that, under like 
circumstances, they will reconsider their minutes and alter 
their verdict ? ITot so. In matters even of this kind, they 
have sagacity and shrewdness, and a decent regard for the 
opinions of the world. 'Not doubting that your object is 
the ascertainment of truth, it is hoped that you will suffer 
no obstacles to impede your course to it ; the most formida- 
ble of all stands directly in your way. 'Tis impossible 
that the faintest ray of light can reach you, when it is 
known that, in despite of all that has transpired of crimi- 
nation, of investigation, of evidence, and of exposure, the 
Agent is present to the Indians in his robes of ermine, yet 
sustained by the Government of the United States, as if his 
purity were spotless and his name unsullied — the same 
in authority as he always has been — the same whom they 
behold in prospect to be their leader through new trials, 
their counselor in evil times, and the supreme director of 
their destinies in all times. Can it be presumed that, 
under such, cu'cumstances, the Indians will speak to you 
without restraint? The documents of incontestable au- 
thority prove to you that tliey will not. Ko, Sir; the way 
to the accomplishment of the ends of your mission, is open 
— suspend the Agent — make atonement to the friends of 
Mcintosh for the blood shed by the guilty instruments of 
white men — ^restore the friendly chiefs to their political 
rank and power, and, my word for it, you will find truth, 
and enough of it, for any purpose — peace, reconciliation and 
union. 

To this letter and that of the 13th, Major Andrews re- 
plied, from the Creek Agency, Flint Kiver, on the 18th, 
stating that he had not received an official copy of the 



Chap. XI.] MAJOR ANDREWS AND COL. CROWELL. 339 

documents promised in the Governor's letter of 31st May 
— m-ging that they be fm^nished, and also that the- Agent 
of the Government be furnished with any additional tes- 
timon}^ which the Governor might wish to offer against 
the Indian Agent, &c., &c. He stated, farther, that he 
entertained different opinions from those expressed in the 
Governor's last letter, and especially in regard to the suspen- 
sion of the Agent— that, after a careful examination of the 
testimony taken by the committee (of the Legislature,) he 
did not think that the suspension was demanded on the 
ground contemplated in his letter of 31st May, and by the 
Government — that he did not think the presence of the 
Indian Agent at any place, or imder any circumstances, 
would be prejudicial to truth — that he had hoped, as the 
Governor's message of 3d June implied doubt of the 
Agent's guilt, and he had been acquitted generally of one 
of the charges, by the report adopted by the Legislature, 
but still had the influence and power of the Executive and 
Legislature against him, and that, too, on ex parte testimony, 
that the Agent would not, on his trial, have to complain of 
any acts, on the part of another, that might appear to par- 
take of oppression. ISTevertheless, " in courtesy" to the 
Governor's fixed opinion, &c,, he would suspend the Agent ; 
but thought that public opinion should not be forestalled 
by the publication of ex parte testimony against the Agent, 
&c., &c. 
Gov. Troup replied, on 20tli June, and said : 

I have, this moment, received your letter, of the 18th 
instant, dated at the Creek Agency. The printing of the 
documents and evidence having relation to the disor- 
ders in the nation, and to the charges exhibited by this 
Government, will be comj)leted, it is understood, in the 
course of the day, so that a copy will be forwarded for your 
use, in the course of to-morrow. ' The commission authorized 
by the Legislature to take farther testimony, will, for that 
purpose, proceed, forthwith, to the nation, and under 
orders to make all possible dispatch. 

You have widely mistaken me, if you believe that any 
disposition exists 'here, to withhold from the Agent the 



340 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUr. [CnAP. XI. 

most ample means of justifying himself to his Government ; 
much less any desire for the performance of an act on your 
part that would savor of oppression : on the contrary, this 
Government desires that the fairest opportunity shall be 
afforded the accused, of profiting of every description of 
testimony which may be available for his complete vindi- 
cation, free from any obstacles or embarrassments which it 
might have the power to interpose. It was in this spirit 
that my instructions to the Commissioners were drafted ; and, 
although it was known that the Agent had disclaimed the 
authority of the Government of Georgia to interfere, and 
that, therefore, there was little probability of liis seeking 
the benefit of a particular instruction ; nevertheless, an in- 
struction has been given, which will admit him, at his pleas- 
ure, to be present at the investigation on our part, and to 
exercise the right of cross-examination freely. Moreover, 
I can add, with great sincerity, that it will give me pleas- 
ure, at any time, to contribute aids and facilities to his 
defence ; for, whatever I may believe of the guilt or inno- 
cence of the Agent, I trust that one and all of us, for the 
honor of our own human nature, would gladly see him 
vindicated and justified against such charges as have been 
preferred by this Government. Whilst, however, this assur- 
ance is given, it is nevertheless true that you have very much 
misconceived the sentence of ]ny message, which, accord- 
ing to your construction of it, implies doubt of the guilt of 
the Agent — no such doubt exists. It was not said that the 
Agent had committed crimes, because it was not intended 
to say so ; it was enough that the Agent had been charged 
with the commission of them ; and, having exhibited the 
charges, I presume you would not have been insensible to 
the indelicacy of the accuser passing sentence upon the ac- 
cused. But, whilst this was purposely avoided there, I can 
very freely make known to you here, that if, instead of 
passing upon the guilt or innocence of the accused, 1 had 
been stating my belief frOm the evidence even now dis- 
closed, and ex parte as it may be, I would have said, v/ithout 
hesitation, that, with respect to the one charge, I believed him 
guilty of that beyond the possibility of refutation, and that 
with regard to the other, ho was so far innocent only as he 
was not present at the time and place, inflicting the blows 
with his own hands. Taking very opposite views of the 
subject, you seem to have yielded a reluctant and ungra- 
cious assent to the suspension of the Agent, and indeed to 
indulge a little the language of comj^laint, lest injury might 
by possibility result from it to the accused 



Chap. XL] LETTER TO MAJOR ANDREWS. 341 

Be persuaded, sir, tliat this act of suspension is in no 
respect personally gratifying to me ; nor were feelings of 
any kind connected with my suggestion of the propriety of 
it, ' but those which yourself must have indulged for the 
successful fulfilment of the objects of your mission. I 
repeat what was before alledged in support of that sug- 
gestion, that it could not be conceived how it would be 
possible for you to make any, the least, advance to the 
attainment of truth, or. to the pacification of the Indians, 
without it as a first and indispensable measure. The friendly 
Chiefs had already given your Government to understand 
that they would never consent to commit themselves again 
to the protection of the Agent ; and you were almost present 
to witness that, by the power and influence of his office, the 
hostile Chiefs had been convoked, and a declaration of the in- 
nocence of the Agent either extorted or otherwise obtained ; 
and this, too, just before the period had arrived at which 
General Gaines and yourself were to convene the same 
Indians, for the purpose of obtaining from them fairly and 
honestly the truth ; a fact well known to the Agent, but 
which fact did not prevent him from thus forestalling and 
anticipating you. 

"When you permit yourself to say that the Agent " has 
not, so far as the investigation has been pursued by the 
authorities of Georgia, been informed of the nature and 
cause of the accusation," you will sutler me to answer, 
that this has been no omission of ours, but of yours. It was 
part of your duty to have notified the Agent, so soon as the 
charges were received, of the existence of those charges ; 
and, with regard to specifications, I assure you that, unless 
for some very useful purpose to the interests of Georgia, I 
would not take the trouble to sit down to paper to make 
them. The Agent is charged with instigating the Indians 
to the commission of the crime of murder, and with pre- 
determined resolution to prevent the Indians from mak- 
ing cession of the lands so long as a certain person was 
at the head of tlie Government of Georgia ; and these, 
in all reason, are specifications enough. We are not exhibit- 
ing charges against the Agent as offending the martial law, 
to which a long detail of specifications, according to cus- 
tom, must be subjoined. If your Government wants further 
specification, it must seek it elsewhere ; and this, sir, is 
obviously the mistaken bias under which you and your 
Government labor. You are willing to resolve every 
thing into prejudice against the Agent, for his protection — 
whereas, it is notorious that the prejudice of your Govern- 



34:2 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap, XI. 

ment lias been so far advantageous to liim, that it is very 
difiicnlt to subdue it by any kind of evidence. With re- 
spect to " the right of confrontation with the witnesses against 
him," there is abundant time for that, when, after finding 
a true bill, he shall be arraigned at the bar of justice — 
and, with regard to his " not having compulsory process for 
obtaining witnesses in his favor, as required by the sacred 
instrument which guards the rights of all," I pledge you 
my word of honor, that whenever I shall hear of such gross 
injustice being done him by any competent and author- 
ized tribunal before which he may be cited, I will consider 
it as an injury done to myself; and, if done by a tribunal 
within our jurisdiction, and of course punishable for 
oifences committed under our constitution and laws, so far 
as depends on me, the utmost efforts will be made to bring 
to punishment all or any public agents concerned in so 
offending. 

The documents are in a course of publication, by order 
of the Legislature. Having been previously made public 
by that body itself, in the most formal manner, it is not 
seen that any further publication of them can operate 
injuriously to the Agent ; for it would seem to be better, 
even on his own account, that after so much had been made 
known of their contents, all should be known, and that 
nothing should be left for inference or conjecture ; es- 
pecially, too, as the public, understanding the character 
of the evidence to be ex jparU^^SSS. be able to estimate it at 
what it may be Avorth. It may be proper to add that, by a 
special and positive resolution, the Governor is directed to 
cause them to be distributed through all the counties, as 
soon as they are printed, and you are already informed 
that the printing will be complete in the coiirse of to-day. 

Major Andrews, replied, from the Creek Agency, on 23d 
June, disclaiming any intention to express a belief that 
the authorities of Georgia were dicposed to withhold from 
the Agent the means of j ustifying himself ; yet expressing his 
conviction that their course towards him must operate 
oppressively, &c. He then corrects an error into which the 
Governor had fallen ; by showing that the convocation of 
the Chiefs by the Agent, and the procuring by him of doc- 
uments from them, for his vindication, occurred " before it 
was possible for the Agent to know that Gen.' Gaines or an 



Chap. XL] FURTHER CORRESPONDENCE. 343 

Agent of the governmeut were ordered here." He insist- 
ed that specifications were necessary, as an act of justice, 
to a fair trial of the Agent, &c., and that before the trial 
of the Agent his punishment had been demanded — to wit, 
his dismissal, &c., &c., and that the publication against 
which suggestion was made, was the publication in the 
news papers and not in pamphlet. The writer concluded 
with a respectful protest against the imputation of preju- 
dice to the General Government, &c. 
The Governor replied as follows : 

Executive Deptvetjient, \ 
Milledgemlle, ^Uh June, 1825. \ 

Sir : I have this moment received your letter of the 23d 
inst. It gives me great pleasure to correct, without delay, 
an error into which I had fallen, and in consequence of not 
adverting particularly to the date of the certificate obtained 
from the Indians by the Agent, and published as part of his 
defence in one of the last papers. From a comparison of 
dates, it does appear that that certificate was obtained before 
the Agent knew that yourself and General Gaines would 
proceed to Broken Arrow to convene a Council or institute 
an inquiry. Whilst this correction, therefore, is most 
cheerfully made, you cannot but admit the utter immateri- 
ality of it to the Agent for any objects or interests of his ; 
for the fact still turns out to be. that whilst the Agent, in 
procuring that certificate, did not intend to forestall, in 
particular, General Gaines and yourself, in making a cer- 
tain examination, he did well know that it would forestall 
General Gaines or yourself or any others whom your Gov- 
ernment might at any time depute to make an examination 
there ; and this is the fact, and the only fact, of any conse- 
quence to the argument. 

On the subject of specifications to which yon have again 
called my attention, I have only to remark, that, if your 
Government pleases to forbear further inquiry or investi- 
gation into the conduct of the Agent, either because it 
derives no specifications from me, or because those specifi- 
cations are not precisely such, in manner and form, as are 
agreeable to itself, it has the power to do so. But if 3'our 
Government has not found matter enough for specifications, 
(if indeed they be at all important,) in the 'published 
accredited documents, or, finding it there in abundance, 
shall not choose to frame them for itself, I assure you, Sir, 



844 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

I would not know wliere to proceed to look for it, even 
if 1 believed it (as I do not,) to be my duty to furnisli those 
specifications. When time shall have disclosed that I was 
mistaken in attributing prejudice to your Government in 
behalf of its Agent, although that belief has not been 
assumed upon light ground, and is so far sustained by the 
occurrences of every day, I assure you, Sir, I shall proceed, 
without delay, to render to it the fullest measure of justice 
which inj ured honor could require from a deceived accuser. 
Yery respectfully. 

Your obedient serv't, 
T. P. Andrews, G. M. Teoup. 

Special Agent. 

Frequent reference having been made to the certificate 
of the Indians in behalf of Col. Crowell, it is proper to 
insert it here. The following is all that is necessary : 

We, the undersigned, chiefs and head-men of the Creek 
ISTation, do certify and declare that we determined, of our 
own free will and accord, to put to death the Chief Mc- 
intosh, and that neither the Agent, John Crowell, or any 
other white man, were the instigators or abettors — nor do 
we know or believe that he, the Agent, knew that we had 
any such design — nor did we commnnicate it to any but a 
few old and head-men. We determined to put him to death 
for a violation of a law first proposed by him and sanc- 
tioned by the Big Warrior and Little Prince — and then the 
different towns were called up, and the lawyers, who had 
been previously made by Mcintosh, Big Warrior and 
Little Prince, were directed to put into execution this law, 
against any chief or other person who broke it, however 
great he might be, even Big Warrior, Little Prince or 
Mcintosh. 

To this were added the following statements in the 
form of question and answer : 1st. That the law " to 
take the life of a Chief of this ISTation who should sell 
the lands of the Nation without the consent of the nation," 
was first made " on the west bank of the Oakmulgee, at the 
time the land belonged to them, the Indians." 2d. If 
the Agent had directed the killing of Mcintosh, "we 
would not, (have done it) for he was not placed here for 
that purpose." No white person knew it, " but James 



Chap. XL] THE GOVERNOR AND MAJOR ANDREWS. 345 

Hutton, who was born and raised in tlie Kation and con- 
sidered as one of ns, who we took as an interpreter." It was 
further stated that " the Chief who commanded the party 
that executed Mcintosh, was asked if he told Mcintosh's 
wife, or any person, that the Agent directed him to do so," 
replied, " ISTo, and that he did not believe his men had done 
so, nor had he heard anything about it — and the Chief, 
after hearing what Chilly Mcintosh had said, relative to 
their shooting at and pursuing him to the river, contra- 
dicted it, and said they neither shot at, nor pursued him, in 
short made no exertions to ketch (catch) him." The whole 
was signed by Little Prince and 36 others, and was dated 
the 1-ith May, 1S25. 

The foliov/ing is inserted somewhat out of its chronolog- 
ical order, but in its appropriate place : 

Executive Department, ) 

MilledgemlU,\UliJ'une,\m^. \ 
Sir : From the course recently pnrsued by the Agent, 
in procuring from the Chiefs of the hostile Indians, 
under the influence of his office, and from the Missionaries, 
their attestation to his innocence, the Commissioners ap- 
pointed nnder the authority of the Legislature, are directed 
to proceed to Broken Arrow, to participate in the councils 
to be holden there on the 25th inst. So far as they have 
for their objects the collection of facts and development of 
truths, as connected with the late disturbances in the Na- 
tion, and the charges exhibited by this Government against 
the Agent of the United States for Indian Affairs— they 
are instructed specially to avoid any interference, unless 
solicited, with the political arrangements or negotiations 
between the United States and the Indians, which apper- 
tain exclusively to the relations and interests subsisting 
between them, and to which the State of Georgia is no 
party. It is hoped and expected that this measure will 
meet your concurrence and approbation. 

"With ffreat respect, &c., 

G. M. TROur. 
Maj. T. P. Andrews, 

Special Agent. 

On the morning of the 28th of June, the following letter 
44 



346 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XL 

from Major Andrews to Col. Crowell, appeared in one of 
the public newspapers at Milledgeville : 

Ckeek Agency, Flint Eiver, ] 
June 21, 1825. f 

Sir : You liave been advised of the measures hereto- 
fore taken by the President of the United States and the 
Secretary of War, in relation to the charges, specific and 
implied, made against you as Indian Agent. I have now 
to inform you, that a suspension from the exercise of your 
functions as Indian Agent, (until all the testimony to be col- 
lected in the Indian nation has been obtained and 
examined,) has been decided on. I hei'ewith send you a 
copy of the evidence collected by a committee of the 
Georgia Legislature, and their report as adopted by the 
Legislature. Copies of other documents, promised me by 
the Governor of Georgia, shall be furnished you as soon 
as those documents are received. You will accordingly 
turn over the Agency to the sub-Agent, Captain Triplett. 

In resorting to the discretionary power vested in me by 
the President, I feel it due to you to state frankly, that this 
determination does not proceed trom any present impression 
unfavorable to your innocence. I am not at liberty, in 
my present peculiar situation, to form a settled opinion on 
the charges made against you, until all the evidence to be 
collected from every quarter has been received and care- 
fully examined. But I feel it due to you to say, that so far 
as I am at liberty to take up a present impression, it is in 
favor of your integrity and honor. I feel it due to you to 
make this statement in consequence of the course (which 
must bo considered an unjust one, if not oppressive,) pur- 
sued towards you by the authorities of Georgia — my im- 
pressions too being chiefly grounded on the ex parte 
testimony taken against you. 

Your suspension is made from courtesy to the authorities 
of Georgia, who have repeatedly and urgently demanded 
it — on the ground that it would be impossible to elicit un- 
biased testimony in the Indian I^ation, whilst you are in the 
exercise of your functions. It is done, too, from a desire 
to do away all pretexts which might otherwise hereafter be 
seized on to destroy conlidence in the results of the exami- 
nations. The suspension will be withdrawn so soon as those 
examinations are concluded, should they result in estab- 
lishing y Jar innocence. 

As tlie object of the General Government, in this ex- 
amination, is the ascertainment of truth, it could not but 



Chap. XL] MAJOR ANDREWS AND COL. CROWELL. 347 

give me pain, as its Agent, to find that in taking testimony 
against you, all the usual prerequisites were lost si^ht of by 
the authorities of Georgia. You were neither " wformed 
of the nature and cause of the accusations,''^ or confronted 
icith witnesses against you, nor liad you " compulsory pro- 
cess for obtaining witnesses in yourfavorP'' The evidence 
on which the harshest opinions have been formed and ex- 
pressed, was not (dri\.j ex imrte, but it has been spread before 
the public, in the newspapers, before you had been in- 
formed of its character or had an opportunity of making 
your defence ; and public opinion thereby forestalled, before 
the General Government, under which you hold your 
appointment, has had an opportunity of examining the testi- 
mony of either party. The course which you have deter- 
mined to pursue, as made known to me in the copy of your 
letter, of the 20th, to the Commissioners appointed by the 
Governor of Georgia to take further evidence against you — 
in inviting them to be present at the examination of your 
voluntary witnesses — is of an opposite character, and cannot 
fail to strengthen the belief of your conscious innocence. 

It is scarcely necessary to add that in the exalted char- 
acter of the President of the United States and the Secre- 
tary of War, you have the surest guaranty of a fair trial, 
and a just decision on it. 

Yery respectfully, sir. 

Your most obedient servant, 

T. r. AiNDEEWS, 

Col. John Crowell. Special Agent. 

In giving this letter to the public. Col. Crowell, in his 
card, said, amongst other things : " Indeed, the imtiring 
zeal maniiested by Gov. Troup in the accomplishment of his 
purpose, has rarely been equalled and never surpassed — it 
stands without a parallel in the annals of persecution ;" 
and he afterwards spoke of " the inquisitorial proceedings 
of the Governor and Legislature of Georgia." 

On seeing Major Andrews' last letter, in print, the Gov- 
ernor immediately addressed the following note to Major 
Andrews : 

Executive Depaetlient, ) 
Milledgemlle, 2Sth June, 1825. ) 

Sir : I call your attention to a letter purporting to be 
yours, and addressed to the Agent, in extenuation of your 
conduct for the act of suspension, and published in a paper 



348 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

here of this morning, called the Patriot. If this letter be 
authentic, you will consider all intercourse between yourself 
and this government suspended from the moment of the 
receipt of this. 

G. M. Troup. 
T. P. Andrews, 

Special Agent United States, Creek Agency. 

And, on the same day, he wrote to the Secretary of War, 
enclosing, " for the information'of the President," the paper 
containing Major Andrews' letter " in extenuation of his 
conduct in suspending" Col. Crowell " from his functions," 
under " instructions," and said : 

" If, in writing such a letter, the Special Agent has so 
acted as to find himself within the letter or spirit of those 
instructions, it is obvious that the question wliich he was 
charged to investigate had been prejudged at Washington, 
before his departure from that city ; and that, consequently, 
the Government of Georgia can no longer, consistently 
with its dignity, hold intercourse with that officer," &c., &c. 

On the 4:th of July, Major Andrews addressed a long 
letter to Gov. Troup, avowing the authorship of the letter 
to Col. Crowell, " with the eivception of a few typographi- 
cal errors," and sending the Governor a corrected copy. 
He said : 

" It is such a letter as my sense of justice imperiously 
called on me to address him in performing a harsh act 
towards him — was approved of by my best judgment, such 
as it is — is approbated by a man,* who, for wisdom, stands 
inferior to few, and in honor to none ; and such an one as, 
1 confidently trust, will receive the approbation of my 
Government. It is such a letter as, from my letters of the 
31st of May, 8th, 18th and 23d of June, to yourself, and 
our frequent verbal communications, as well as those 
verbal and written to your Aid-de-Camp and friend, Col. 
Lumpkin, you ought, in my opinion, to have anticipated ; 
and such an one as I was convinced, "for the honor of hu- 
man nature," (to use your own eloquent expression,) you 
expected." 

He spoke, also, of the Agent's "inflexible integrity and 
firmness in stemming a torrent of corruption, disgraceful, 

* Gen. Gaines, no doubt. — Ed. 



Chap. XL] INSTRUCTIONS TO COMMISSIONERS. 34:9 

in my opinion, to the national character ;" and this, after 
the examinations, " both nnmerons and important," had 
progressed. 

Pending his correspondence with Major Andrews and 
Gen. Gaines, the Governor, on 18th June, addressed a letter 
to the Georgia Commissioners, Messrs. Jourdan, Jones, 
Torrance and Williamson, in which he said : 

Yon are requested to proceed to the Indian Springs,, to 
attend a Council of the friendly Indians to be holden there 
on the 20th inst. As it is presumed that every concert 
tendered on the part of this Government to assure a full 
development of the facts connected with the late disturb- 
ances in the Creek I^ation, and also such as may more 
particularly affect the guilt or innocence of the Agent, under 
the charges exhibited against him by the Governor of this 
State, V7ill be gratifying to Major-General Gaines, you are 
hereby author'ized and empowered, under the authority 
vested in you by the Legislature, to employ all lawful means 
for the furthering of the objects aforesaid, avoiding atthe 
same time any interference whatever with that Council in 
matters disconnected with the objects of your mission, 
and which a]3pertain exclusively to interests and relations 
purely political subsisting between the General Govern- 
ment and Indians. 

From the Indian Springs you will proceed to attend the 
other Council of Indians to be holden at Broken Arrovvr on 
the 25th inst. Your j^resence there v/ill be of more impor- 
tance, because more immediately connected with the in- 
vestigation of the conduct of the Agent, as arraigned by 
the Governor, at the instance of the President of the 
United States, and by the Legislature of the State. You 
will no doubt be admitted to a free participation of that 
Council, and will be suffered to take with you, under suf- 
ficient safeguard, any of the friendly chiefs whose presence 
there you may consider necessary to the accomplishment 
of tlie objects which the United States and this Govern- 
ment have in view. There can be the less doubt of this, 
because, the charges having been already made both by the 
Executive and Legislative authority of Georgia against the 
Agent, and the Agent having so far thought proper to have 
recourse to the "Missionaries and hostile Indians in the 
Nation, for his defence, and that defence being already 
before the public, at the instance of the Agent, in which 



350 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XL 

it would seem that both being under the control and 
influence of his office, any direction most suitable to his 
views may be given to their opinions and feelings ; it is 
only an exercise of strict right on the part of the Govern- 
ment of Georgia that it be heard before that Council, by 
its Commissioners, who are instructed to give and receive 
explanations for the purpose, in common with the Agents 
of the United States, of arriving at truth and doing justice 
to all parties. Sliould such participation be denied you, 
you will enter your formal protest against that denial, and 
proceed to avail yourselves, within the jurisdiction of 
Georgia, of all the testimony you can obtain. 

In reply to the Governor's letter of 15tli June, (copied 
in the preceding chapter,) Gen. Gaines wrote, the next 
day, stating that he had not permitted himself to be " in- 
fluenced by any statements fi-om Col. Crowell, although 
not prepared to condemn that officer without a hearing," &c. 
— that his impressions led him " to the conclusion that the 
proposed surveys, with the consequent influx of white men, 
strangers to the Indians, during the existence of feuds 
amongst them, would not fail to fan the flame of discord," 
&c, ; expressed the hope that the Governor would soon 
hear, fully and satisfactorily, from the proper department ; 
thanked him for the promptitude with which he had fur- 
nished him with information in regard to the late disturb- 
ances on the frontier, and stated his readiness" to co-operate 
with him in the discharge of his duties ; expressed the hope 
that the spirit of hostility might soon be restrained amongst 
the contending parties of the Indians : but, as a precaution- 
ary measure, desired the Governor to furnish, from the 
militia or volunteers, one regiment of cavalry, and one of 
infantry, to be held in readiness, &c., &c. 

On the same day, he said he would take an early occa- 
sion to advise the Governor " of the result of the intended 
conferences with the Indians," &c. 

On the 16th. of June, the Governor wrote to Gen. Gaines 
that he had issued orders for the required military force 
&c. ; and, on the 18th, he wrote him that the Georgia Com- 
missioners would acquaint the General with the Governor's 



Chap. XL] THE GOVERNOR AND GEN. GAINES. 351 

instructions to them ; and expressed the hope that, " by con- 
cert and co-operation, such aids and facilities" might " be 
afforded as would be desirable" to Gen. Gaines. &c. The 
letter concluded : 

From what has occurred, it is highly important that this 
Government should be represented at the Council to be held 
at Broken Arrow on the 25th. The many inconsistencies in 
the conduct of the Indians to be explained and reconciled, 
and their recent convocation by the Agent for the purpose 
of repelling charges made against him by the Governor of 
this State, at the instance of the Government of the United 
States, make it indispensable for the attainment of truth 
and justice, that the Commissioners should be present 
there. If, for this purpose, it should be thought advisable 
to take with them some of the friendly Chiefs, who are 
deeply interested in vindicating their characters against 
reiterated attacks upon them by the hostile party, it is 
hoped that this, likewise, will meet your concurrence, and 
that they will be placed under your safeguard and protec- 
tion. 

In reply. Gen. Gaines wrote from Indian Springs, on 
22d June, and said : " I have to observe that, however 
much I might be aided by the experience, talents and in- 
tegrity and honor of the Commissioners referred to on the 
part of the State of Georgia, I do not feel myself author- 
ized, without new instructions from the Department of "War, 
to comply with the demand contained in their letter of 
yesterday's date, ' to be admitted to a full and free partici- 
pation of the Council of Indians,' " &c., &c. — that the 
Indians were " still laboring under- some delusion and ex- 
citement," which "would be increased rather than dimin- 
ished by adding to the number of individuals by whom 
they are to be addressed, or by any addition or multiplica- 
tion of the matters of controversy to which their attention 
may be called" — that he was " fully authorized and in- 
structed by the government of the United States, to protect 
the friendly Indians, to mitigate their calamitous condition ; 
and, in the event of hostilities having ceased on the part of 
the opposite party, to restore harmony between them," &c., 
&c,, &c. — that his sense of the responsibility of the high 



352 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap XL 

trust reposed in liiiti, suggested clearly the propriety of his 
"having the entire control of every individual white man 
allowed to address the Council," and that he "should, 
moreover, have the control of every expression uttered to 
the Council by any citizen or officer of the United States'' 
— that, without such control, confusion might ensue and the 
benevolent objects of the government be defeated ; and 
added : "To avert an evil so pregnant with mischievous 
consequences to the Creek l^ation, to the peace and honor 
of my country, and to my own reputation, I must decline 
the demand of the Georgia Commissioners ;" but that, if 
"instructed by the proper authority to recognize the pro- 
posed co-operation of the Georgia Commissioners," he 
would " take great pleasure in serving with them ;" and 
that his whole duty as a public officer was comprised in one 
single word, which suggested the propriety of the course 
pursued by him on that occasion—" and that word is ohe- 
dienoe — obedience to the laws and the orders of the author- 
ities' placed over me." In the same letter, he stated that 
hostilities had ceased, and that he had received " satisfac- 
tor}'^ assurance of an earnest desire on the part of the Chiefs 
of both parties to remain at peace with each other," and 
that it therefore became his duty " to make peace upon ju:st 
principles, and consequently to avoid an Indian "War." 

It is not important to notice, particularly, the action of 
the Georgia Commissioners, as that will appear substanti- 
ally in the letters, &c,, of Gov. Troup, which follow ; and, 
however desirable it might be, we have no room for their 
corresjDondence with Gen. Gaines, Major Andrews and Col. 
Crowell. On the 28th of June, the Governor, notified the 
Commissioners that " the dignity of Georgia requires that 
it^no longer continue to recognize him (Major Andrews,) in 
his official character of Special Agent." 

Three of the Commissioners, on the 20th June, addressed 
a note, at the Indian Springs, to Gen. Gaines, in which they 
said : " It is important to the Commissioners that your an- 
swer to the application of his Excellency the Governor to 
admit the Commissioners to a full and free participation of 



CiiAP. XL] COMMISSIONERS AND COL. CROWELL. 35^ 

the Council of tlie Indians, should be received as early as 
practicable." The next day, Gen. Gaines replied, declining 
the application, his reasons for which will appear in his 
letter, of 22d June, to the Governor. This called forth a 
second letter from the Commissioners to Gen. Gaines, in 
which, after stating the object and importance of their mis- 
sion, and especially in reference to the investigation of the 
conduct of the Indian Agent, they said : ' 

"To arrive at the certainty of all these facts, in the most 
imposing and official manner, it was considered by our 
Government necessary to constitute the present mission. 
It was further determined, by the same Government, to be 
of the first consequence that the members of that mission 
should present themselves, clothed in their official charac- 
ter, in the Council of the Indians to be convened by you ; 
believing that in those Councils information might be elic- 
ited material to the points in issue between the State of 
Georgia and the Agent for Indian affairs. For this pur- 
pose and no other, we have been directed by our Govern- 
ment to repair to this place, and to inform you of the same, 
and to respectfully ask your permission for admittance 
therein. "\V e have done so by request only ; we have not 
demanded it: that permission has been denied us. We 
therefore, in pursuance of our instructions, as also a proper 
sense of duty towards our Government, do hereby enter 
our formal protest against such denial, believing that, in 
consequence of being debarred the participation in those 
Councils, the State of Georgia will unquestionably be de- 
prived of that which is to her of vital interest and great 
magnitude." 

On the 20th of June, Col. Crowell addressed a note to 
the Commissioners, offering them permission 1(» cross-ex- 
amine his witnesses. He added : 

" In giving you this invitation, I wish you distinctly to 
understand that it is not given under the impression that it 
is your right — since I have not been confronted with the 
witnesses against me. But it is given under a fall convic- 
tion of being able fully to establish my innocence, by wit- 
nesses who shrink not from the ordeal of cross-examination, 
and to show you that my defence rests not, like the accusa- 
tions against me, upon the flimsy foundation of garbled 
evidence, arbitrarily taken and improperly reported." 
•io 



354 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

In acce]3ting the invitation, by letter of 25tli June, the 
Commissioners said : 

" We shall be happy on our part to cross-examine any 
witnesses you may deem necessary. On our part, we 
would observe, that the Government of Georgia feels no 
disposition to deprive you of any and every means of justi- 
fying yourself. We have no doubt that yon would have 
been permitted to be present and cross-examine the wit- 
nesses before the eommittee of the Legislature, had a request 
been made by you, and we have been particularly instructed 
by his Excellencythe Governor to afford you that privilege." 

On the 25th of June, the Commissioners again called the 
attention of Gen. Gaines to that part of the Governor's 
instructions requesting that they be allowed a free partici- 
pation of the Council of the Indians to be convened at 
Broken Arrow, and that then lately held at Indian Springs, 
and rej^eated the request to be admitted to the Council at 
the former place. To this Gen. Gaines replied, in a long 
letter of 26th June, declining the request. In his letter he 
said: "It affords me pleasure to profit by the suggestions 
of my fellow-citizens ; but those suggestio7is, to be accepta- 
ble to me, must be free of anything like official power or 
control." 

We copy the following letter from the Commissioners to 
the Governor, dated Fort Mitchell, 28th June, 1825. 

By the return of your express, we advised you of our 
movements up to that date. Finding ourselves completely 
forestalled in every operation here, by the directions of 
Gen. Gaines and the Agent, we determined in Council that 
a part of the mission should proceed forthwith to Ala- 
bama," believing the testimony to be obtained in that 
quarter more important than any we could collect here. 
In furtherance of these views, Cols. Jones and Torrance left 
here, yesterday evening, and will return with all possible 
dispatch to join us. The other two members of the mission 
continue to occupy their situation. The Indians will pro- 
bably go into Council to-morrow. As yet we know noth- 
ing of the import of their deliberations, and as yet we can 
say nothing favorable of the object of our mission. 

* Fort MitclicU was then supposed to be iu Georgia; but the siibsequent running of the 
line between the two States, showed it to be iu Alabama. — Ed. 



I 



Chap. XL] GOV. TROUP AND THE COMMISSIONERS. 355 

Meanwhile, the Governor kept up a regular communica- 
tion with the Commissioners. The following is one of his 
letters to them : 

Executive Department, \ 

Milledgeville, 2St/i June, 1825. j' 
Gentlemen : It would be desirable, if yon have an op- 
portunity to do so, to impress upon the Indians the inno- 
cence of the intention as well as the innocence of the act 
of survey, on our part, as their rights or interests of any 
kind can in no manner be affected by it. The measures 
of the United States will undoubtedly have a tendency to 
excite them against us ; and if the United States should not 
take part with them in resisting the survey, humanity 
would dictate the propriety of forewarning them of the 
consequences, after placing them in possession of the facts 
and principles which govern our conduct. 
Yery respectfully, 

G. M. TEour. 
The Georgia Commissioners, 
at Broken Arrow. 

Again, on the 1st of July, he wrote them ; 

" Perceiving by your peculiar situation in the ISTation, 
that more of efficiency and dispatch may be given to your 
proceedings, by enabling you to detach members of your 
Board whenever it shall be deemed necessary, you are 
hereby further instructed to make such detachment at dis- 
cretion — provided that not less than two shall be competent 
to proceed to business at any particular place, whose report 
shall in all cases be made to the Board for its adoption or 
rejection, and that no such proceeding shall be considered 
iinal and conclusive until it has received the sanction and 
approbation of the Board." 

The following letters from two of the Commissioners, 
deserve a place here. The first gives, perhaps, the earliest 
official information which the Governor received of an ex- 
pectation or attempt to ah'ogate the treaty. 

Crabtree's, Creek J^ation, 

June 30th, 1825. 
His Ex. Geo. M. Troup : 

Sir : Difficulties and obstructions having been thrown in 
the way of the early fulfilment of the objects which called 
us to this place, we have to request of you to detain any 



356 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

witness or witnesses who may attend at Milledgeville, for 
examination, until our arrival. The hostile part of the 
Nation have, for some time past, been deluded with the ex- 
pectation, nay, almost certainty, of the abrogation of the 
treaty. We have great pleasure of informing your Ex- 
cellency, that General Gaines took occasion, yesterday, 
while in council, to state distinctly such a hope was illusive 
—that such an occurrence was unknown in the history of 
diplomacy, and earnestly urged them to become reconciled 
to the treaty, and the policy of the General Government. 
"We take occasion to assure your Excellency of our high 
consideration and respect. 

"Waeeen Jouedak, 
Wm. W. Williamson. 

Commissioners. 

Ceabteee's, Ceeek Nation, ] 
July 2d, 1825. j 

His Ex. Geo. M. Troup : 

Sir : We have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of 
your several enclosures by express. 

In conformity with your wishes, a talk was immediately 
drafted, expressive of your views in relation to the survey 
of the country forthwith, accruing to Georgia by the late 
treaty concluded at the Indian Springs. As Gen. Gaines 
had, from the beginning to the end, disclaimed the au- 
thority of Georgia to an interference with the " delicate 
and important trust confided to him," we deemed it re- 
spectful to submit it to his examination and decision before 
we proposed it to the Council. We had the mortification 
to •receive, in this as well as in every other application 
which was calculated to facilitate the objects of our mission 
and to elicit truth, the continued and reiterated declaration, 
" it will conflict with our instructions, it is therefore inad- 
missible." We have accomplished but little ; our v/ay has 
been obstructed and hedged in on all sides. We have 
been engaged indefatigably to promote the well-being of 
the State we have the honor to represent on this occasion. 
Our labors have been unsuccessful and mortifying to an 
extent unknown in the history of diplomacy. You shall 
hear from us in detail at a proper time. 

Your Excellency's most obliged and humble servants, 
Waeeen Jouedan, 
W. W. Williamson, 

Commissioners. 



Chap. XL] GOV. TROUP AND GEN. GAINES. S57 

It is now time to return to Gen. Gaines. On the 1st of 
July, he wrote to the Governor : 

I had promised myself the pleasure of sending you a de- 
tailed account of my conference with the Indian Council 
at this place, by this day's mail ; but the mail is on the 
point of closing, and my account is not ready. I have, 
therefore, only to say that the Council here promise to be 
peaceable, and to settle their differences with the friends 
and followers of General Mcintosh upon just principles. 

They j)rotest against the treaty. 

They refuse to receive any part of the consideration 
money, or to give any other evidence of their acquiescence 
in the treaty. But they have, in the strongest terms, de- 
liberately declared that they will not raise an arm against 
the United States, even should an army come to take from 
them the whole of their country ; that they will make no 
sort of resistance ; but will sit down quietly and be put to 
death where the bones of their ancestors are deposited ; 
that the world shall know that the Muscogee nation so loved 
their country that they were willing to die in it, rather 
than sell it or leave it. This was their mode of expression, 
as interpreted in presence of Ben Hawkins, and several 
other interpreters, who were instructed to state whether or 
not the public interpreter did his duty. 

The Council, fully attended, has thus appealed to our 
magnanimity ;. an appeal which never can be unavailing 
when addressed to citizens of the United States. 

The Governor replied, as follows : 

Executive Department, I 
MiUedgeville, Uh July, 1825. j 

Sir : I had the honor to receive your letter, of the first 
instant, this morning, for which be pleased to accept my 
thanks. 

How does the obstinate refusal to remove consist with the 
universal consent given at one time to the treaty at the In- 
dian Springs, with the exception of the Tookaubatchees, or 
with the report made by Hambly to Col. Williamson, that 
he had the yea or nay in the matter, and by the authority of 
these same people, or the placid content and good feeling 
for Mcintosh, manifested in their talk to Col. Lamar? &c., 
&c. I much fear this ardent love of country is of re- 
cent origin ; we can scarcely believe that the amor patrice 
is all upon the one side, and that side the hostile one. "Will 



358 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XL 

you not be able to discover, in the course of your investi- 
gation, tliat everything had been said and done by white 
men to prejudice them against their new home? It is, in- 
deed, a pity that these unfortunate men should be the dupes 
of the most depraved of our own color, and so far the dupes 
as to be made to act in direct repugnance to their own best 
interests ; it is more to be lamented that the impostors and 
knaves cannot be dragged from their hiding places and 
punished. Presupposing these unhappy people to continue 
blind and obdurate, the utmost Vvdiich your government can 
do, in the spirit of magnanimity and forbearance, will be 
to relinquish the benefit which would result to it from the 
execution of the treaty, and guaranty to them, for their 
permanent home, the lands west of the Georgia line. If 
the Cherokces continue to conduct themselves in like tem- 
per, the like provision may be made for them. But how 
will this accord with the recent policy adoj)ted by the 
United States, or with the substantial and lasting interests 
of the Indians ? In every estimate of humanity, it would 
be better that this deceitful charm, by which they are 
bound, should be broken and dispelled ; that, after adj ust- 
ment and reconciliation of differences, the entire body 
should move without sorrow to the country alloted to them. 
I am persuaded that no efforts of yours will be unessayed 
to accomplish this most desirable and holy end ; holy, I 
say, because it is the only one which can consist with their 
peace, safety and happiness. Pardon me for throwing out 
these hasty and desultory reflections ; they have no doubt 
already presented themselves to your own mind. 

Presuming that the followers of Mcintosh, who almost 
exclusively occupy the Georgia lands, will remove ; and 
that, in their present unsettled condition, it would be very 
desirable to them to do so, whilst it would save the 
United States the expense of their maintenance and sup- 
port here, I would feel myself obliged, if, consistently 
with your duty, you would give every encouragement to 
such dispositions. 

With great consideration and respect. 

G. M. Troup. 
Edmund P. Gaines, 

Major-General Com'g, 
Fort Mitchell. 

On the 10th of July, Gen. Gaines wrote to the Gover- 
nor, apologizing for not having written as often or as fully 



Chap. XL] GEN. GAINES TO THE GOVERNOR. 359 

as liG had been desirous of doing, in consequence of " the 
excessive heat of the weather," and " many inconveniences 
and interruptions," &c. He then proceeded to communi- 
cate the result of his conferences with the Creeks — that he 
had met the Chiefs of the Mcintosh party, heard their re- 
spective statements, with the evidence for and against each 
party, and urged an adjustment of diiferences, to which 
they had mutually assented ; that the Mcintosh party de- 
manded retaliation for their fallen Chiefs, and the immedi- 
ate restoration of their property taken or destroyed, &c., 
&c. He added : " The reputed hostile party consists of 
all the principal Chiefs, and of nearly forty-nine fiftieths 
of the whole of the Chiefs, Head-men and "Walrriors of 
the ISTation : among whom I recognize many who were 
in our service during the late war, and who, to my certain 
knowledge, have been for twenty years past, (and I think 
they have been at all times,) friendly to the United States 
as any of our Indian neighbors could have been known to 
be. I met them at Broken Arrow, the usual place of hold- 
ing the great Council of the E"ation : I could not, therefore, 
but view the supposed hostile party as in fact and in truth 
the Greek Nation^ and altogether free of the spirit of hos- 
'tility ascribed to them" — ^thathehad "received from them, 
. in Council assembled, the most deliberate assurance of 
their determination to be peaceable and friendly towards 
their absent people, as well as towards the United 
States. They regretted the necessity which, they contend, 
existed for the strong measures they adopted against Gen. 
Mcintosh, and others, who, they affirm, forfeited and lost 
their lives by having violated a well known law of the 
Nation ;" that they had " engaged to restore all property 
taken, and to pay for all that has been destroyed contrary 
to law," &c. — that " the Council strongly and unanimously 
objected to the late treaty, as the offspring of fraud, entered 
into contrary to the known law and determined will of the 
nation, and by persons not authorized to treat ;" that they 
refused " to receive any part of the consideration money 
due under the treaty, or to give any other evidence of their 



360 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. rCiiAP XL 

acquiescence in it" — that they had " expressed the hope that 
their white friends would pity their deplorable condition, 
and would do them the justice to reconsider and ' undo that 
which has been wrongfully done' "■ — that he had endeav- 
ored, wdthout success, to convince them " of the fallacy of 
their objections to the treaty, and to dissipate their delusive 
hopes that it can ever be annulled," &c., &c. The letter 
stated that there would be no occasion for the militia or 
volunteers of the State, and concluded thus : 

" The certificate, of which I enclose herewith a copy, 
marked A, added to the declarations of the Chiefs in Coun- 
cil, of whom Joseph Marshall was principal and Interpre- 
ter, proves that your Excellency has been greatly deceived 
in supposing that the Mcintosh party ever consented to the 
survey of the ceded territory being commenced before the 
time set forth in the treaty for their removal. This fact, 
giving altogether a new aspect to the subject of the pro- 
posed survey of the land, added to a strong conviction on 
my mind that the attempt to make the survey would be a 
positive violation of the treaty, and will, under existing 
causes of excitement, be certain to produce acts of violence 
upon the persons or property of unoffending Indians whom 
we are bound to protect, it becomes my duty to remon- 
strate against the surveys being commenced until the Indi- 
ans shall have removed, agreeably to the treaty. I cannot 
doubt that the facts disclosed by the accompanying certifi- 
cate, with the concurrent testimony of the Chiefs in 
Council, to which I have adverted, will induce your Ex- 
cellency, without hesitation, to abandon the project of 
surveying the land before the month of September, 1826. 
This would be particularly gratifying to me, as it would 
relieve me of the painful duty of acting, not in concert 
with the venerated authorities of an enlightened and pat- 
riotic member of the United States, to whom I stand 
pledged, by every principle of honor, under the solemnity 
of an oath, to serve them honestly and faithfully." 

The following is the certificate referred to' by Gen. 
Gaines : 

We certify that we accompanied the express from Gov- 
ernor Troup to Gen. Mcintosh, conveying the request that 
he would allow the survey of the land acquired by the 
treaty at the Indian Springs, to be immediately commenced. 



Chap. XI.] GOVERNOR TO GEN. GAINES. 361 

Gen. Mcintosh replied that he could not grant the request, 
but would call the Chiefs together, and lay it before them 
— which was never done. 

Wm. Edwaeds. 

Joseph Marshall. 
At Portess, Upson Co., July 9, 1825. 

I certify that this is a correct copy of the original certifi- 
cate signed in my presence. 

E. G. W. Butler, 

Aid-de-Camp. 

The following is Governor Troup's reply : 

Executive Department, 
MilUdgevilU, July IQth, 1825. 

Sir : I have only a moment left to say one word in 
answer to that part of your letter I had the honor to re- 
ceive yesterday, which relates to the assent given by 
Mcintosh to the survey of the country. The certificate of 
Marshall, no matter how procured, is one of the most 
daring efforts that ever was attempted by malignant vil- 
lainy to palm a falsehood upon credulity. Now, Sir, that 
you may be at once undeceived with regard to this trick, 
which has been played oW by somebody, I have to assure 
you that, independently of the assent three times given by 
Mcintosh, under his own hand, which I have in my posses- 
sion, this same man, Marshall, has repeatedly declared to 
me, that there was not a dissentient voice from the survey, 
among the friendly chiefs. All the chiefs I have seen, 
have uniformly declared the same ; and so they have de- 
clared to others, both in and out of council ; and for this 
you have my word of honor, and may have my oath. I 
very well know, from the late events which have transpired 
under the eyes of the Commissioners, that the oath even 
of a Governor of Georgia may be permitted to pass for 
nothing, and that any vagabond of the Indian country may 
be put in requisition to discredit him. But I assure you, 
Sir, if that oath should not weigh one feather with your 
Government, it will weigh with the people of this State, 
who, so far as I have a knowledge of their history, have 
never refused credence to the word of their Chief Magis- 
trate, and I believe will not to the present one, unworthy as 
he may be. Permit me to say, in frankness, that I do not like 
the complexion of things, at all, as disclosed by the Com- 
missioners on the part of the State, and sincerely hope that 
you may never have cause to regret the part you have 
46- 



362 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

taken in tliem. Every prepossession here was in your 
favor, and it would have given me great pleasure to cherish 
it in behalf of an officer who had rendered signal ser- 
vice to his country through many a perilous and trying 
scene. 

Yery respectfully, 
Your obed't serv't, 

G. M. Tkoup. 
Edmund P. Gaines, 

Major-Gen. Commanding, Indian Springs. 

To this letter. Gen. Gaines wrote the following as a 
reply ; but which he caused to be published in a Milledge- 
ville paper, instead of sending it by mail, or private hand, 
to the Governor. It is published here, in full, not as a 
specimen of eloquent composition or of polite diplomatic 
style, but that the reader may form a tolerable judgment 
of the propriety of the Governor's suspending, as he had 
done in the case of Major Andrews, all further official in- 
tercourse with the " Major-General, Commanding." 

Head-Quarters, Eastern Department, ) 
Indian Springs, ^Sth July, 1825,, ) 

Sir : I have to acknowledge the honor of your Excel- 
lency's letter of the 17th of this month, by which it ap- 
pears that you had " only a moment to say one word," in 
answer to mine of the 10th. Your one word, comprehend- 
ing, however, two pretty closely written pages, coming as it 
does from the Chief Magistrate of an enlightened and pat- 
riotic member of the United States, demands my attention. 

Not being disposed, however, to follow your example as 
to time, I have permitted your letter to lie on my table for 
a week past, in the expectation that a little reflection 
would suggest to you the propriety of correcting some 
expressions apparently hasty, and calculated to call forth 
an answer partaking of the climate and heated atmosphere 
in which I find myself: against which it has been my con- 
stant purpose to guard ; but your letter having made its 
appearance in a newspaper just now handed to me by a 
friend, I can no longer see the propriety of withholding a 
reply. You say, " the certificate of Marshall, no matter 
how procured, is one of the most daring efforts that ever 
was attempted by malignant villainy to palm a falsehood 
on ignorant credulity."' — ■" JV^o matter ItoiD ^procured ! " 



Chap. XL] GENERAL GAINES' LETTER. 363 

I will first state to you tlie manner in which that fright- 
ful certificate was " procured," and then proceed to_ show 
that its " daring" character consists in its truths and its di- 
rect tendency to expose in part the " malignant mllainif 
which has been extensively practiced on the credulity of 
many of the good citizens of Georgia, and other States, in 
reference to "the Indians and the treaty. The facts con- 
tained in the certificate in question, were voluntarily, and, 
to me, unexpectedly communicated by Mr. William Ed- 
wards and Joseph Marshall, whose signatures it bears. 

Of the character of William Edwards, who is a citizen 
of this State, I have had no means of knowing much person- 
ally. He has been represented to me by Col. Brodnax, of 
Pike, and by Col. Phillips, of this county, as a man of 
truth — poor, but honest and upright; a description of char- 
acter applicable to a large class of the inhabitants of this 
and other parts of our western border, in whom I have 
usually found as much devotion to truth, as in any other 
class of American citizens. 

Joseph ]\[arshall is personally better known to me. He 
is a Creek half-breed, and is deemed to be a good interpre- 
ter ; and however deficient, as I know he is, in education, 
and refined moral sentiments such as have obtained the 
sanction of civilized society, I have no doubt that he is one 
of the most upright Chiefs that ever belonged to the little 
treaty -making 'party. JSTeither of these men, Edwards or 
Marshall, appeared to me at all qualified for what you 
denounce their certificate to be, " the most daring effort 
that ever was attempted by malignant villainy." 

Their statements were simple and apparently un- 
prejudiced and unimpassioned ; they were made after 
the principal business of the council had been brought to 
a close, and in the presence of many of the respectable citi- 
zens of Pike county. 

Convinced of the propriety of all my duties with the 
Indians being performed in oiKn day., and in the presence 
of as many as would attend, of all states and all colors, I 
took care that the certificate should be taken and explained 
in presence of the council, and of all others who had seen 
fit to attend. 

I had no secret project to promote, nor any ^^ secret 
(griefs'^ to remedy, or secret hopes to gratify ; and conse- 
quently had no occasion for separating the Chiefs, or for 
secret examination. The certificate was written as it was 
dictated, as I believe word for word, by my Aid-de-Camp^ 
Lieut. E. George Washington Butler, a young oflicer of ac- 



364 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

complisliecl military education and talents — with, unbend- 
ing integrity and spotless honor ; and who is as incapable 
of giving countenance to a triok or misrepresentation, as 
was the beloved Father of his country, with whose name 
he is honored, and whose patriotism^ and virtue he con- 
stantly scrupulously imitates. Having thus explained to 
you the means employed to obtain the certificate in 
question, for which I hold myself responsible, I have now 
to remark that, although I have never entertained a doubt 
that you were deceived into a belief that Gen. Mcintosh 
had consulted the few Chiefs of his party, and had obtained 
their assent in Council to the immediate survey of the 
ceded land ; ^^et I have found no satisfactory evidence of 
such Council, consisting of the Chiefs of the ceded territory, 
having ever acted at all upon the subject. And it is appar- 
ent from Mcintosh's letters, " no matter how 'procured^^ (I 
will offer no apology for making use of your Excellency's 
pregnant phrase,) or by whom written, that he himself con- 
sidered the permission to survey as merely conditional. But 
I contend that neither General Mcintosh nor his vassal 
Chiefs had any right to give such permission : for the 
treaty, " no matter how procured," had become a Icm of 
the land : its provisions could not therefore be changed or 
rendered inoperative by any correspondence, or any subse- 
quent agreement between your Excellency and any part or 
the whole of the individuals of one of the contracting 
parties, without the consent of the other. 

The treaty makes it our duty to protect the Indians 
against the whites and all others ; to protect them from the 
whites, it is necessary and proper that we should maintain 
the usual line of demarkation between them and the whites. 

I am charged with their protection. 

To accomplish this important duty, my first object has 
been to take efiectual measures to prevent all intercourse 
between them and the whites, excepting only such as is 
sanctioned by the. laws of the United States. 

You say, " I very well know that from the late events 
which have transpired under the eyes of the Commission- 
ers of Georgia, that the oath of a Governor of Georgia may 
be permitted to pass for nothing, and that any vagabond of 
the Indian country ^may be put in requisition to discredit 
him ; but I assure you, sir, if that oath should not weigh 
a single feather with your government, it will weigh with 
the people of this State, who, so far as I have a knowledge 
of their history, have never yet refused credence to the 
word of their Chief Magistrate." To this apparently very 



Chap. XL] GEN. GAINES' LETTER CONTINUED. 365 

serious, but certainly very vague, cliarge, I cannot under- 
take to reply, until you do me the favor to give me some spe- 
cifications of the matters of fact to which you have referred. 

I will, however, take this occasion to remark, that what- 
ever statements you may have received in support of the 
insinuation apparently contained in your letter, that I have 
called in question, or even put any person in requisition to 
call in question, the oath or the word of a Governor of 
Georgia, during his continuance in office, is wholly desti- 
tute of truth. I have, indeed, believed, and have expressed 
to you my belief, that you have been greatly deceived by 
persons in whose honor you have placed reliance, but who 
were unworthy of your confidence. 

But I am by no means disposed to yield my tacit assent 
to the high-toned rule of English law, which your remarks 
just now quoted call to mind, that "the King can do no 
wrong." Truth is a divine attribute, and the foundation of 
every virtue. " Truth is the basis of all excellence." This 
inestimable moral treasure, truth, is to be found in the cot- 
tage as well as in the palace, at the plough as well as at 
the official bureau of state. 

Many of the unfortunate wanderers of the wilderness 
and its borders, are as firm votaries of truth as any men I 
have ever known. Some of them, who have l)een unfortu- 
nate in business, and whose regard to truth and honesty 
induce them to give up the last dollar justly due to their 
creditors, had. they regarded money a little more, and ti'uth 
a little less, might have failed full handed ; and now, in- 
stead of being reduced to the condition of despised poverty, 
would wanton in the luxuries of plundered wealth. It is 
no longer possible, in America, to make freemen believe 
that " the King, (or he who governs,) caii do no wrong." 

The enlightened citizens of the Kepublic, having long 
since found it to be fruitless to look for angels in the form 
of inen to govern them, know full well how to discriminate 
between the high office and the man who fills it. 

Tour Excellency will, I doubt not, alvv^ays receive a de- 
gree of 'respect, proportioned, at least, to that which you 
are wont to bestow on other men in office ; more than this 
could not be expected ; less than this would not be just. 
That a great number of the citizens of Georgia are mag- 
nanimous, just, generous and chivalric, I well know; and 
that they are disposed to do justice to their Chief Magis- 
trate, I am equally convinced ; nor can I doubt that they 
will do equal justice to their United States, as well as their 
State, officers. 



^QQ LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chaf. XI. 

I rely upon the wisdom and justice and patriotism of at 
least nine-tenths of those with whom I have the pleasm^e of 
an acquaintance, many of whom are cultivators of the land ; 
to which class, in this and every other State in the Kepub- 
lic, I look up with confident pleasure and pride, as they 
form the adamantine pillars of the Union ; against which 
the angry vaporing paper squibs of the little and the great 
demagogues of all countries, may continue to be hurled for 
hundreds of centuries, without endangering the noble edi- 
fice. This beloved monument of American wisdom and 
valor and virtue, Avill stand unshaken, when the disturbers 
of its infantile repose will be remembered to be pitied or 
execrated. 

The good people of Georgia, I am well aware, are 
anxious to obtain possession of the land upon their western 
border ; but they would abhor the idea of fraudulent or 
lawless means being resorted to, to treat for, or, after treat- 
ing, to obtain possession of it before the time authorized 
by treaty. And I am well convinced that the President 
of the United States is as sincerely desirous as any upright 
citizen of Georgia can be, that the Indian claims to the 
lands within her limits should be speedily extinguished, 
and that the Indians should remove therefrom as soon as 
they can justly be required to remove ; but he owes them 
protection 2Lndi justice, and both will be extended to them. 

It is not to be denied that there is in Georgia, as well as 
every other State, a small class of men, \yho, like the 
" Holy Alliance" profess to employ themselves in the 
laudable work of enlightening and governing all other 
classes of the community, but whose labors consist of the 
vain and " daring efforts" to j^rove the light of truth is to 
be found only with the party to which they themselves re- 
spectively belong, and that all others go wrong. If you 
will take the trouble to read the newspaper essays with 
which the presses have been teeming for some years past, 
you will find that many of the essayists have had the hard- 
ihood to " refuse credence to the word of their Chief 
Magistrate," and yet we have no reason to despair of the 
Eepublic. 

You say, " I do not like the complexion of things at all 
as disclosed by the Commissioners on the part of the State, 
and sincerely hope (you add) that you may never have 
cause to regret the part you have taken in them." Permit 
me then. Sir, to conclude with a sincere hope that the 
Commissioners, with whose report I am thus menaced, may 
prove by their conduct that they belong not to the afore- 



Chap. XL] GOVERKOR AND GEN. GAINES. 267 

mentioned one-sided enlightening class ; slionld their report 
be fonnd to contain the truth, the ichole truth, and nothing 
hut the truth, your Excellency may dismiss your apprehen- 
sions, felt on my account, as I have nothing to apprehend. 
But if their report is not true, I can say only that the 
tongue and the pen of calumny can never move me from 
the path of duty, nor ever make me regret the course pur- 
sued by me in respect to the Indians, or the Commissioners, 
the State or the United States. 

In tendering to your Excellency my acknowledgements 
for the prepossession in my favor, of which you speak, and 
which you say would have given you "pleasure to cherish 
in behalf of an officer who had rendered signal services 
to his country," permit me to observe that the approbation 
of my countrymen is more dear to me than any earthly 
treasure they could bestow, save that of an assured devo- 
tion to the Republic : if, indeed, it be in my power to win 
that approbation by a faithful discharge of my duty as a 
public officer, and as an honest man, I have long en- 
deavored thus to win it. My best efforts are constantly 
exerted to ascertain the direct and proper course of duty 
prescribed by law and justice and honor, and to pursue 
that course without any regard to consequences. But I 
have seen, of late, with regret, that it is scarcely possible 
for an officer of the General Government to differ with 
you in opinion, without incurring your uncourteous animad- 
version or your acrimonious censure ; neither of which 
shall ever induce me to forget what is due to myself or the 
venerated station you hll, and the relation in which yon 
stand to the General Government, in whose service I have 
the honor to be placed. 

Wishing you health and respect, 

I have the honor to be 

Edmund P. Gaines, 
Major-Gen. Com'g. 
To his Excellency 

George M. Troup, 
Governor of Georgia. 

The following from the Governor explains itself: 
Executive Department, 
Milledgemlle, 6th Aug., 1825. 
Sir : A letter, purporting to be yours, which appeared 
in the last Georgia Journal, and having every characteris- 
tic of an official one, could not fail to attract my attention. 



368 LIFE'OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XL 

Immediately, therefore, on my return to tliis place, inquiry 
was made, at the Department, for the original, and I learned, 
with surprise, that none such had been received. Tlie prop- 
er means were then resorted to, to ascertain the authentic- 
ity of the published letter, and, having been satisfied that 
the same was in your proper handwriting, I have lost no 
time to direct you to forbear further intercourse with this 
Government. Having thought proper to make representa- 
tions of your conduct to the President, I have ordered you 
to be furnished with a copy of every letter written on your 
subject, and which will reach you in due time. Any com- 
munication proceeding from the officer next in command in 
this military department, will be received and attended 
to. 

G. M. Troup. 
E. P. Gaines, 

Major-Gen. Commanding, Indian Springs. 

The next day, Governor Troup addressed the following 
communication to the President of the United States : 

Executive Department, \_ 
MiUedgeviUe, 1th Aug., 1825. j 

Sir: The letter of the Secretary of "War, of the 18th 
May, introducing to this Government Major-General Gaines 
and Major Andrews, as Agents of the United States to 
inquire into the causes of the late disturbances, to adjust 
the diiferences subsisting between the Indians, and to in- 
quire into the conduct of the Agent of Indian aff'airs, 
recommended them as ofiicers distinguished for ability, 
prudence and discretion. They v/ere received and treated 
accordingly. With the conduct of the (^le you have been 
already made acquainted : with that of the other it remains 
for me to place you in possession. 

In the several conferences held with General Gaines, on 
his first arrival, I received repeated assurances from him of 
friendly dispositions ; of upright intentions ; of freedom 
from all kinds of bias or prejudice which could mislead 
his judgment, or influence his decisions, on any of the topics 
Avhich, in the execution of his trust, might present them- 
selves for discussion. Relying implicity on the sincerity 
of these declarations, I began with regarding Gen. Gaines 
as an honorable and disinterested arbiter between the 
United States, Georgia, and the Indians, and so continued 
to regard him until a short time before his insulting letter, 



Chap. XL] LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT. 369 

of the lOtli ult., was received at tliis Department. It was 
impossible for tins Government not to repel tliat insult with 
indignation. 

The Chief Magistrate, in his official message to the Leg- 
islature, had stated, explicitly, that Mcintosh and his Chiefs 
had given their consent to the survey ; and, in support of 
this statement, the letters of Mcintosh were exhibited with 
his name subscribed in his own hand, of which General 
Gaines had full information : nevertheless, the certificate 
of an Indian Chief, who had deserted from the Mcintosh 
party, and of a white man, of whom General Gaines him- 
self does not pretend to know anything, is procured to 
discredit the statement of the Governor, and to exhibit 
him before the public as the dupe of the vilest and shallow- 
est impostm-e ; and, in his solicitude to accomplish this, he 
forgets that it is the consent given by Mcintosh and his 
Chiefs to the sm-vey, which, on the information of the 
Agent, you have taken for granted to be the sole cause of 
all the disturbances in the nation, and npon which you 
have recently issued the most offensive orders to this Gov- 
ernment, connected with that survey, and in your last even 
denounced military vengeance against those who shall at- 
tempt to carry it into execution. 

When Gen. Gaines is rebuked, in the mildest language 
which the' unprovoked insult would admit of, he presents 
himself again before the public in a letter, indulging hi 
most intemperate abuse of all the constituted authorities 
of a sovereign State, and the great body of its people, and 
which he causes to be published almost a week before it 
was received at this Department. 

With regard to the first letter of General Gaines, to 
which I have called your attention, he does not seem to 
have been content with addressing a letter so exceptionable 
to the head of this Government : he assumes the authority 
to order its publication, on the allegation of some pretended 
and undefined malicious falsehoods in circulation, and w^hich 
he makes the foundation of an appeal to the public — an 
appeal more censurable than that for which the gallant 
and meritorious Porter is now answering, before a Court 
Martial, assembled by your order ; inasmuch as the latter 
only defends himself against the inculpatory charges made 
by his own Government, whilst the former, who was 
bound by equal respect to this Government, does not pre- 
tend that any charges, of any kind, had been preferred by 
it against him. It Is in this letter, too, that General Gaines 

47 



370 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

lias fallen into the sliockiug extravagance of asserting, 
what noboclj can believe, that the Mcintosh party, which 
made the treaty, constituted but a fiftieth part of the 
nation ; and it was in the same letter he made known, 
ofiicially, to this Government, that he has happily con- 
cluded a pacification of the Indians, when at that moment 
he was as remote from the pacification as he ever had been, 
of which fact I have even within the passing hour received 
the most incontestable evidence. 

With regard to the second letter, of the 28th ult., which, 
now that I am writing, has for the first time been put into 
my hands, and almost a week after its publication, I have 
to remark that the history of diplomacy will not furnish a 
parallel so marked with indiscretion, intemperance, disre- 
spect, and the outrage of all decency. Gen. Gaines for- 
gets as well what he owes to his own Government as to 
this. His duty to you required him to show respect to this 
Government in all his intercourse with it. If, in that inter- 
course, he had found himself wronged or aggrieved by the 
authorities here, it was not allowed him to take the redress 
into his own hands. Upon representation to you, you were 
competent to decide the nature and the extent of the 
injury he had received, and of the redress most suitable to it. 
He would not confide the exercise of this privilege to you, 
no doubt questioning your fitness or discretion for such 
matters, but chose to rely on his own dexterity and 
prowess. 

He writes, among other things, of the " malignant vil- 
lainy" which has been extensively practiced on the cre- 
dulity of the good citizens of Georgia, and other States, in 
reference to the Indians and the treaty. A charge so vague 
cannot be easily understood, much less distinctly answered. 
Presupposing it to be directed against the authorities of this 
State, and to be in all respects true, who made Gen. Gaines 
the judge to pass this condemnatory sentence on the con- 
duct of those au.thorities ? It had been understood that 
you had reserved to yourself this power, and that General 
Gaines was here only as your Agent to collect the evidence 
upon which that power was to be exercised. 

He proceeds to make another reference to the certificate 
of the Indian Chief and the white man — reiterates the ex- 
pression of unlimited confidence in the veracity of Marshall 
— eulogizes him as among, the most worthy of the " little 
treaty-making party," and comes again to the conclusion 
that the Chief Magistrate of Georgia, and others, are not 



Chap. XL] LETTER TO THE TRESIDENT. 37I 

to be credited against tlie certificate of sucli respectable 
personages. 

Within this hour, I have received the testimony of the 
Chiefs of the friendly party, vohintarily given, " that the 
statement of Joe Marshall, to General Gaines, is false ; " and 
I enclose you the certificate of my express,^'"' a man of fair- 
est character and undoubted veracity, to satisfy you that 
Marshall has added falsehood to treachery. In this part of 
his letter, he takes occasion to manifest liis resentment to- 
wards the friends of Mcintosh : he calls tliem " the little 
treaty-making party ;" then, again, " the vassal Chiefs of 
Mcintosh," and questions their right to give permission to 
make the survey. What a dispassionate and impartial um- 
pire is this General Gaines! One would have supposed 
that, consulting the magnanimity of a soldier, if he had 
departed from the line of neutrality at all, he would be 
found at the head of the weaker — the innocent and injured 
party. But the General, consulting the better part of 
valor, and counting the odds against him as fifty to one, 
throws himself into the ranks of the stronger party, and 
thus commends himself again to you for that discretion 
which you had given to him in advance. 

The General is correct in one of his positions, and, being 
in the right himself, he puts you in the wrong, and so con- 
spicuously, that you stand on the insulated eminence, an 
almost solitary advocate for making and breaking treaties 
at pleasure. 

General Gaines says, "the treaty, no matter how pro- 
cured, had become a law of the land," &c., &c. He had 
said to the hostile Indians, at Broken Arrow, " that the 
treaty could not be annulled, and must be carried into 
effect," &c., &c. This is good sense. The day before yes- 

^- The certificate of tbo express, Jesse Prosser, dated 2d August, 1825, stated that on 
his way to the " Katiou," and after he had got into the Indian country, (with a request from 
the Governor to Mcintosh and the other Chiefs for their assent to the survey,) he fell in with 
Joe Marshall and William Edwards, who accompained him to Mcintosh's house ; that, on 
Mcintosh's informing him that he had called a meeting of the Chiefs for 10th April, Marshall 
and Edwards being both present, Marshall (acting as Interpreter) informed witness that 
when the Chiefs were convened, and their wishes consulted, Mcintosh would advise the 
Governor of it, and observed to witness, in presence of Mcintosh, that he (Marshall) had no 
objection to the survey ; that the survey would be an advantage to the Indians, as they could 
then dispose of a great deal of then- provisions, and, after their growing crop was made, they 
could sell out their improvements and be ready, next spring, to set out for their new country; 
that Marshall informed witness that, although Mcintosh requested it, yet it was not necessary 
for him (Marshall) to stay to the talk, as his consent was given ; and that after Marshall, 
Edwards and witness left Mcintosh's house, Marshall, several times during the journey, man- 
ifested his entire approbation of the survey, and obs'erved that he had no doubt of the assent 
of the Chiefs being given when they should meet on 10th April, &c.— Ed. 



372 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

terday, I received your letter, in wliicli you say, General 
Gaines having informed you that the treaty had been ob- 
tained by intrigue and treachery, it vv^ill be referred to 
Congress for reconsideration. General Gaines tells the 
Indians that no treaty has ever yet been annulled. You 
say this treaty shall be made an exception to all others, and 
upon the information received from General Gaines. 

General Gaines proceeds to manifest his respect and 
complaisance for the Chief Magistrate of a sovereign State, 
by informing him that " he has been greatly deceived by 
persons in whom he placed reliance, but who were un- 
wort'ny of his confidence," thus taking upon himself the 
responsibility to decide, for the Chief Magistrate, one of 
the most delicate of all questions connected with govern- 
ment and sovereignty, viz : the question, who are v/orthy of 
trust, and who, among the public servants, are or are not 
entitled to his confidence. In a little time, sir,' with your 
countenance and encouragement. General Gaines would 
have dictated the appointments to office in this State, and, 
may be, the least hesitation or repugnance to comply with 
such dictation, would be subdued by a parade of United 
States troops. 

After quoting a maxim, that "the king can do no 
wrong," and expatiating on the moral excellence of truth 
and her indiscriminate habitation at the palace and the 
cottage, the plough and the bureau of State — with the wand- 
erers of the wilderness and the honest but unfortunate 
debtors, of all which I cannot, for the life of me, under- 
stand the application, much less the farrago which follows, 
about some]3ody regarding money a little more and truth a 
little less — ^condition of despised poverty and luxuries of 
plundered wealth, &c., &c., and which is equally unintel- 
ligible ; General Gaines is scarcely more distinct and intel- 
ligible, when, in passing a meagre compliment to a portion 
of the citizens of Georgia, he professes to " rely on the 
wisdom, justice and patriotism of at least nine-tenths of 
those with w^hom he has the pleasure of an acquaintance," 
many of vv'hom are cultivators of tlie land ; and then, again, 
" that the cultivators are the adamantine pillars of the 
Union, against which the angry vaporing paper squibs of 
the little and the great demagogues of all countries may 
continue to be hurled for hundreds of centuries without 
endangering the noble edifice," &c., &c., all of which may 
be intended to convey some meaning and admit of ready 
explanation by General Gaines, but which, I assure you, 
sir, is altogether above my comprehension. 



Chap. XI.] LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT. 373 

The General soon "becomes a little more explicit, when 
he says there is in Georgia a small class of men, who, like 
the " holy alliance, profess to employ themselves in the 
laudable work of enlightening and governing all other 
classes of the commnnity, bnt whose labors consist of vain 
and daring efforts to prove that the light of truth is 
to be found only with the party to which themselves 
respectively belong, and that all others go wrong." Party ! 
Sir ; an Agent representing the Government of the Unit- 
ed States before the Government of Georgia, address- 
ing to the Chief Magistrate of the State an official paper, 
in which, descanting on the state of parties, the writer 
places himself by the side of the one party, and fulminates 
a denunciation against the other ! 

Pray, Sir, suffer me to ask if Major-Gen. Gaines received 
special instructions at your hands so to deport himself — to 
pry into tlie state of parties to iind out the relative strength 
of them — to place himself on the side of the strongest, 
giving it aid, countenance and co-operation — and from 
this strong-hold to issue insolent anathemas against the 
other, through the Governor of the State, tlius directly 
intermeddling in our local politics and availing himself of 
our unhappy divisions to make the exasperations of party 
3^et more bitter ? Gen. Gaines will not permit us to mistake 
him — he proceeds to call the particular party to which he 
is opposed, the " one-sided enliglitening class ;'' in another 
place he calls them " the small class." 

The opportunities of General Gaines to inform himself 
of tlie state of parties in Georgia, have been no doubt 
much better than mine, which have indeed been very 
limited, but 1 have more generally heard from men better 
informed, that the relative strength of parties was somewhat 
different from the General's estimate of it. He seems to 
have adopted the same rule of enumeration, under the 
same optical delusion, as in measuring the strength of the 
Indian parties, and to have arrived at the very gratifying 
conclusion that the numerical strength was in the propor- 
tion of 50 to 1 ; undoubtedh' a very incorrect conclusion. 

This officer took umbrage at my request to permit tlie 
Commissioners, on the part of the State, to act in friendly- 
concert with him, in making his investigation for the dis- 
covery of truth. Why he did so, I cannot conjecture. 
This, however, was passed by without notice, as was his 
subsequent refusal to admit them to a participation of the 
Councils in matters involving interests of Georgia. His 
indiscretio7i in declaring, before the Council at Broken 



3Y4 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

Arrow, that if the congregated world were to contradict the 
Chief Yoliolo, he would not believe it — has been already 
noticed in the letter which I last had the honor to address 
to you. It is upon the authority of tliis Chief, Hambly, 
represented to be one of the most infamous of men, and 
of the Agent of Indian Affairs, that you have come to the 
conclusion to return the treaty to Congress, for revision, it 
having been procured by intrigue and treachery. 

Gen. Gaines is reported to me to have said, in the pres- 
ence of one of the Commissioners on the part of the State, 
that if :23 States out of the 24 were to pronounce the Agent 
guilty, he would not believe them. 

Gen. Gaines has been guilty of the childish indiscretion 
of threatening to cut off the heads or ears of citizens of 
Georgia who happened to offend him, as if you had given 
him his sword for this special service. 

But, indeed, Sir, it is high time to dismiss the subject of 
this officer. 

In maintaining correspondence with the Government of 
the United States, I have not permitted any false consider- 
ations of dignity, or any false estimates of forms and 
ceremonies, which usually govern diplomatic intercourse 
between States, to interpose the least difficulty. So far 
from it, I have cheerfully descended to the level of every 
thing which it pleased you at any time to employ as your 
representative or organ — from the Clerks of your Bureaus, 
up to your Major-Generals by brevet, and have acted and 
treated with them as equals. 

In the deportment of some of these, I have experienced 
arrogance, self-sufficiency, a haughty and contemptuous car- 
riage, and a most insulting interference with our local 
politics; and these characteristics not exhibited to one but 
to all of the constituted autliorities of the State. ISTow, 
Sir, suff'er me, in conclusion, to ask if these things have 
been done in virtue of your own instructions express or 
implied, or by authority of any warrant from you whatso- 
ever; and, if not so done, whether you wilh sanction or 
adopt them as your own, and thus hold yourself responsible 
to the Government of Georgia. 

Be persuaded, Sir, that whenever hereafter you shall 
think proper, not deceiving yourself or us, to send gen- 
tlemen to represent you before this Government, of the 
character given to those by the letter of the Secretary of 
War of the 18th May, they will be received and respected 



Chap. SI.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH CHIEF CLERK. 375 

as officers of the General Government would be by tlie 
most friendly States of tlie Union. 

With great consideration, 

G. M. Teoup. 

We go back, now, in the order of time, and notice some 
other matters in this Indian controversy. Having, on 
13th June, forwarded to the President the report and 
resolutions of the Legislature, with the evidence support- 
ing them, all " having relation to the conduct of the Agent 
for Indian Aifairs, as connected with the late disturbances 
in the Creek ITation," he received, soon after, a reply 
through Major Vandeventer, Chief Clerk of the War De- 
partment, dated 25th June, acknowledging the receipt of 
the letter and enclosures, and stating that the President 
would " give to them all the consideration wdiich, coming 
from so high a source, they may merit." On the 15th 
June, the Chief Clerk had written to the Governor, ac- 
knowledging the receipt of his letter, of the 3d June, to the 
Secretary of War, and stating that the President had (in 
tiie absence of the Secretary,) directed him to say, in reply, 
" that if the Government of Georgia should undertake the 
project of surveying the lands ceded to the United States 
by the Creek Nation of Indians," &c., " before the expira- 
tion of the time specified by the Stli article of the treaty, 
for the removal of tlie Indians, it will bo wholly upon its 
responsibility; and that the Government of the United 
States will not in any manner be responsible for any con- 
sequences which may result from that measure." 

The Governor, on 25th June, replied, as follows, to the 
Chief Clerk : 

I received, this morning, the note which, in the absence 
of the Secretary of War, the President of the United 
States directed you to address to me, and in which I am 
informed that the project of surveying the lands ceded to 
the United States by the Creek Nation of Indians, at the 
treaty of the Indian Springs, before the expiration of the 
time specified by the 8th article of the treaty for the removal 
of the Indians, will be wholly upon its (the Government of 



8Y6 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

Georgia's) responsibility, and tliat the Government (viz : the 
Government of tlie United States) will not in any manner 
be responsible for any consequences which may result 
from that measure." A very friendly admonition, truly. 
So that, whilst you referred your resistance of the survey 
to the evils already produced by the mere effort on the 
part of this Government to obtain permission to make the 
survey, and when the fact of that cause producing those 
effects is disproven, and it is made known to you that 
nobody here, either whites or Indians, ever conceived such 
a thing as possible before you had assumed it upon the 
representation of the Agent as undoubtedly true ; and 
that your own Agent, to suit his own purposes, had fabri- 
cated it, to deceive and mislead you, nevertheless, you 
continue to issue order after order forbidding the survey, as 
if you had predetermined, from the beginning, that, under 
no circumstances, should we proceed to the survey with- 
out your express permission first had and obtained. Nay, 
more : You repeat this order to General Gaines, who is 
charged to promulgate it to the hostile Indians ; so that, 
whether there be any thing obnoxious in the survey or 
not, they may seize it as a pretence, under the authority 
and with the support of the United States, to scalp and 
tomahawk our people as soon as we shall attempt that 
survey ; and that, in fact, you adopt for the Indians, gra- 
tuitously, an imaginary wrong done to them, persuade them, 
even against their will, that it is a real one, and then 
leave them to indulge, in iinbridled fury, the most 
tempestuous passions ; and this, I presume, is the mean- 
ing, in part, of the responsibilities which we are to incur 
if we disregard the mandate of the Government of the 
United States. 

You will, therefore, in the absence of the Secretary of 
War, make known to the President, that the Legislature, 
having, in concurrence with the expressed opinion of the 
Executive, come to the almost unanimous conclusion, that 
by the treaty, the jurisdiction, together with the soil, 
passed to Georgia, and in consequence thereof, authorized 
the Governor to cause the line to be run, and the survey 
to be made, it becomes me, in candor, to state to the 
President, that the survey will be made, and in due time, 
and of which Major-General Gaines has already had suf- 
ficient notice. 

Whilst, in the execution of the decrees of our own con- 
stituted authorities, the Government of the United States 
will find nothing but frankness and magnanimity on our 



I 



Chap. XL] FURTHER CORRESPONDENCE. 377 

part, we may reasonably claim the observance, in like 
degree, of these noble qnalities on theirs. When, therefore, 
certain responsibilities are spoken of, in the communica- 
tion of the President, we can rightfully inquire, what 
responsibilities ? Georgia, in the maintenance of her un- 
doubted rights, fears no responsibilities ; yet, it is well for 
Georgia to laiow them, so far as they are menaced by the 
United States. If it is intended that the Government of 
the United States will interpose its power to prevent tlie 
survey, the Government of Georgia cannot have too early 
or too distinct notice ; for, how highly dishonorable would 
it be for the stronger party to avail itself of that power to 
surprise the weaker ! If the Government only means that, 
omitting its constitutional duty, it will not pacify the In- 
dians, and make safe the frontier, whilst the officers of 
Georgia are in peaceful fulfilment of their instructions, 
connected with the survey, it is important to the Govern- 
ment of Georgia to know it ; that, depending on itself for 
safety, it shall not depend in vain. But, if the Govern- 
ment of the United States mean wdiat is not even yet to be 
believed, that, assuming, like their Agent, upon another 
not dissimilar occasion, an attitude of neutrality feigned 
and insincere, it will, like that Agent, harrow up the 
Indians to the commission of hostile and bloody deeds, 
then, indeed, the Government of Georgia should also know 
it, that it may guard and fence itself against the perfidy 
and treachery of false friends. In either event, however, 
the President of the United States may rest contented 
that the Government of Georgia cares for no responsibili- 
ties in the exercise of its right and the execution of its 
trust, but those which belong to conscience and to God, 
which, thanks to Him, is equally our God as the God of the 
United States. 



To this letter, Governor Troup received a reply from the 
Secretary of War, dated 21st July, in which that officer 
said : 

Tour letter, of the 25th of June, addressed to Major 
A^andeventer, has been received, the answer to which has 
been intentionally delayed till the result of Gen. Gaines' 
interview with the Indians, at Broken Arrow, should be 
received, as the President had anxiously hoped, in the ac- 
quiescence of the Indians to the treaty, to have found the 
necessity of replying to your inquiries entirely obviated. 
48 



378 I^IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

But, as the communications from General Gaines, recently- 
received here, have entirely destroyed that hope, a reply 
has become necessary. 

The Indians, to the number of 1890, including a large 
majority of their Chiefs and Head-men of the tribe, have 
denounced the treaty as tainted alike with intrigue and 
treachery, and as the act of a very small portion of the 
tribe, against the express determination of a very large 
majority ; a determination known to the Commissioners. 

They urge that, to enforce a compliance with an instru- 
ment thus obtained, would illy become either the justice or 
the magnanimity of the United States, under which they 
claim to take shelter. These are allegations presenting a 
question beyond the cognizance of the Executive, and 
necessarily refers itself to Congress, whose attention will 
be called to it at an early day after the next annual meet- 
ing. Meanwhile, the President, acting on the treaty as 
though its validity had not been impeached, finds, b_y re- 
ference to the eighth article of the treaty, the faith of the 
United States solemnly pledged to protect the Creek Indians 
from any encroachment, till their removal in September, 
1826. iTe therefore decided that the entering upon and 
surveying the lands before that period, would be an infrac- 
tion of tlie treaty, whose interpretation and execution, 
should it remain uncanceled, are alike confided to him. I 
am, therefore, directed by the President to state distinctly 
to your Excellency, that, for the present, he will not permit 
such entry or survey to be made. The pain the President 
has felt, in coming to this decision, is dimiiiished by the 
recollection that it interferes with no duty imposed on your 
Excellency by the laws of Georgia, as a discretion is given 
you, by the late law of the Legislature, in prescribing the 
time when the lands embraced by the treaty shall be sur- 
veyed. Under all the circumstances, the President permits 
himself to hope that you will acquiesce in his decision. 

As General Gaines has been in communication with you 
on this subject, and as it is the wish of the President you 
should be in possession of every measure he may find him- 
self constrained to take thereon, I am directed to enclose 
to your Excellency a copy of General Gaines' instructions 
of "this date. 

In his instructions to General Gaines, the Secretary of 
War said : 

" It is still devoutly to be hoped that Governor Troup 



Chap. XL] GOVERNOR TO SECRETARY OP WAR. 379 

will abstain from any act that may make it necessary to 
liave reconrse to tlie steps snggested : yet, should he per- 
severe in sending persons to survey the lands embraced 
within the treaty, you are hereby authorized to employ the 
military, to prevent their entrance on the Indian Territory, 
or, if they should succeed in entering the country, to cause 
them to be arrested, and turn them over to the judicial 
authority, to be dealt with as the law directs." 

To the foregoiug letter of the Secretary of War, Gov. 
Troup replied on the 15th of August, and said : 

I have received your letter of the 21st ult., giving the 
desired explanation of the former one of the 15th day of 
June last, in which you wrote of undefined responsibilities 
which this government must incur if it attempted the sur- 
vey of the lands acquired from the Creeks, and which 
results in the employment of the bayonet on your part, and 
of the tomahawk and scalping-knife on the part of the In- 
dians, if the survey be attempted. I thank you for this 
explanation ; for, whether your intent were good or evil, it 
equally became you to make it. You make known, at the 
same time, the resolution of the President to refer the treaty 
to Congress, on the allegation that intrigue and treachery 
have been employed to procure it. This at once puts a 
stop to the survey, and you will inform the President that, 
until the v^^ill of the Legislature of Georgia is expresssed, 
no measures will be taken to execute the survey. 

The Executive of Georgia has no authority, in the civil 
war with which the State is menaced, to strike the first 
blow, nor has it the inclination to provoke it — this is left 
for those who have both the inclination and authority, and 
who profess to love the Union best. The Legislature will, 
on their first meeting, decide wdiat, in this respect, the rights 
and the interests of the State demand. In the mean time, 
the right to make the survey is asserted, and the reference 
of the treaty to Congress, for revision, protested against with- 
out any qualification. It is true, sir, that, according to my 
own opinion, if there be fraud and corruption in the pro- 
curement of the treaty, it ought to be set aside by the in- 
dignant expression of the nation's will — the taint of such 
corruption, according to that opinion, would suffice to ren- 
der void an instrument of any kind purporting to pass a 
right of any kind. 

But, of what avail is this opinion against your own estab- 
lished maxims and precedents ? You would decry it as the 



380 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

visionary speculations of a wild enthusiast, because you 
would refer me to all your Indian treaties. You would 
present to me, in full relief, the decision of your Supreme 
Court, in the case of Fletcher and Peck, where, a feigned 
issue being made to settle the principle, the principle was 
settled that the Legislature of Georgia having, by bribery 
and corruption, sold the inheritance of the people for a 
mess of pottage, the grant passed a vested right which could 
by no possibility be divested, and therefore that the Con- 
gress had no alternative but to surrender the territory of 
Alabama and Mississippi, or compromise the claims. They 
chose the latter, and gave five millions of dollars to the 
claimants, of which we paid our full proportion. 

Whilst, therefore, I present my own opinion on the one 
hand, you have, on the other, my public and official pro- 
testation in strict accordance and unison with your and all 
your constituted authorities' decisions, and which place the 
treaty upon such high ground, that, no matter by what 
execrable baseness it may have been elevated there, even 
the Congress of the United States cannot reach it. 

It may be otherwise, but I do sincerely believe that no 
Indian treaty has ever been negotiated and concluded in 
better faith thau the one which is the subject of this letter. 
If it be otherwise, having been concluded by your own 
officers, against your instructions, without any participation 
of the authorities of Georgia, I sincerely hope that those 
officers may, so far as you liave ])ov/er, be brought to trial 
and punishment. But yet, according to your own doctrines, 
this does not impair the validity of the treaty. The Legis- 
lature of Georgia will, therefore, on its first meeting, be 
advised to resist any eftbrt which may be made to wrest 
from the State the territory acquired by that treaty, and no 
matter by what authority that eftort be made. 

The hostile Indians having resolved they will never sur- 
render it but with their lives, and you having passively 
acquiesced in this resolution, because of the appeal made 
to your magnanimity and generosity, and it being obvious 
that our right, not asserted now, is lost to us forever ; if the 
Legislature shall fail to vindicate that right, the responsi- 
bility will be theirs — ^not mine. 

The Georgia Commissioners, Messrs. Jourdan, William- 
son, Jones and Torrance, who had been appointed imder 
the resolution of the Legislature, and acted under the in 
structions of the Governor, already noticed, made a report 



Chap. XL] REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS. 381 

to the Governor on the IGth of July, appended to which 
were their correspondence with Gen. Gaines, Major An- 
drews and Col. Crowell, notes of their proceedings, and a 
mass of testimony, sufficient to make a volume. -We can 
only make room for a few extracts from the report, which 
are of a general natnre — a recapitulation of the report 
being embraced in the letter of the Governor to the Presi- 
dent, dated 26th July, and which will be inserted in this 
chapter. 

Speaking of one of their examinations, the Commission- 
ers said: " We are unable to give you a proper idea of 
this examination. Suffice it to say, we became satisfied that 
any attempt on our part to obtain the truth from men living 
in the Indian nation, (whether white or red,) and under the 
influence and power of the Agent, into whose conduct we 
were then examining, must be fruitless." Again : " From 
the course pursued by the Agent, at that Council, and his 
permission to do so, {^for the omission to jproliihit him vjas 
jjermission,) his suspension was purely nominal — it was a 
mere mockery. We have no doubt but that his free ad- 
mission into the Indian Councils, aided and assisted by his 
former sub-Agent, Mr. Walker, gave to him quite as much 
influence over the minds of the Indians as he ever exercised 
in the days of his utmost prosperity and authority." Again : 
'' Upon the subject of a law which the hostile party allege 
that Mclntosli violated, and which led to his death, you are 
referred to the report of Messrs. Jourdan and Williamson. 
We have no doubt, from the very many contradictory 
stories that we had heard in the liation, touching the origin 
of the enactment of such a law, that no such law was ever 
known among the Creeks. We are confirmed in this opin- 
ion, by the reply of Gen. Gaines to the friendly Chiefs at 
the Indian Springs on the 20th ult. If we are correctly in- 
formed upon that point, he there stated that he had read their 
laws, and was gratified to find none so sanguinary as that al- 
leged by their enemies to exist, under color of which it had 
been stated that the murder of Mcintosh was perpetrated. 
The Chiefs in Council did not pretend that they had any 



382 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

such law reduced to record. A white man, who informed 
one of the Commissioners that he had resided in the ISTation 
twenty or thirty years, stated that he knew of no such la-w. 
The very manner in which these unfortunate men were put 
to death, proves that the Indians did not execute them for 
having violated any law. "We believe that when it became 
necessary to enforce such sanguinary edicts upon any of 
that tribe, the culprit is arrested and conducted to some 
town or public square in the Nation, and there undergoes 
a species of trial ; sentence of death is then pronounced, 
the accused is thereupon publicly put to death by shooting. 
" How unlike such a procedure was the foul murder of 
Mcintosh and his friends : his house was surrounded at the 
dead hour of night, and set on fire by a band of lawless 
assassins, and there, encircled by the scorching flames pro- 
duced by the conflagration of his own mansion, was ho, 
inhumanly and most unlawfully put to death. When 
witnesses are called on in the I^ation, who, it is supposed, 
knew something of Indian laws and Indian policy, they 
account for these murders by saying, it was for violation of 
their lav.' — which law, answers a Church Missionary, loas 
seen ly nobody. ''• '" ''"' '"" The gross inconsistencies in 
the statements of the Indians, and white men resi(^ent 
among them, to establish the existence of such a law, fix 
indelibly on the minds of the Commissioners that no such 
law is, or ever was.'"' The argument in support of such a 
law, proves too much : the Agent himself did not rely on 
it at the commencement of these Indian disturbances. ■'• 
'^' "'• ^- '■' ■'■ '"' How far the whole of the testimony 
taken in support of the charges against the Indian Agent, 
sustains those charges, is not for us officially to determine ; 
nor do we desire to express an opinion, of an ofiicial char- 
acter, upon the subject. There is a subject not directly 

* In his "Gazetteer of Georgia," page 265, third editioai, Mr. Sherwood says : "But no 
such law ever existed. General Gaines and the Georgia Commissioners could find no traces 
of it. But if there had been such a law, all the others who signed the treaty ought to have 
shared a fato similar to that of Mcintosh. If there had been such a law in existence, 
Colonel Crowell, the Agent, who witnessed the treaty, and who was the guardian of the 
Indians, must have known it, and he would not have suffered a brave warrior like Mcintosh; 
a tried and steadfast friend to these United States, to sign his own death-warrant."— Ed. 



Chap. XL] LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT. 383 

within the objects of our appointment, but it is insepara- 
bly connected with tlie treaty and its consequences, upon 
which we beg leave to offer a remark. It is upon the 
subject of the contemplated survey of the territory lately 
ceded. During the stay of the Commissioners at the In- 
dian Springs, three of them were informed by several of 
the leading Chiefs of the friendly party, that they were will- 
ing and even desirous that the survey should be made 
during the ensuing fall, and assigned as a reason that the 
surveyors and their people being amongst them at that 
period, would afford them an opportunity of disposing of 
much of their products, that they could not transport with 
them to the westward ; that they intended removing beyond 
the Mississipi^i before another crop was made, if the Gen- 
eral Government would pay them the money, according to 
the terms of the treaty. Connected with this, Sir, we re- 
mark that it is somewhat strange that the Chiefs who 
reside heyoncl the limits of the territory ceded to the 
United States for the benefit of Georgia, are the only 
Chiefs, with a few exceptions, so far as we are informed, 
who are opposed to the survey." 

The report concluded by stating that there was some 
other testimony to be taken, with which they would pro- 
ceed as soon as practicable. 

The reader is now referred to the following letter from 
Governor Troup to the President, giving a summary of the 
proceedings of the Commissioners, the obstacles they en- 
countered, efec. It was dated July 26th, 1825 : 

In communicating the report of the Commissioners of 
the State, appointed under certain resolutions of the Legis- 
lature to take testimony in the case of the Agent for Indian 
affairs, and to investigate the causes of the late disturbances 
in the Creek ISTation, it might be more satisfactory to you 
to receive it without comment. The report may indeed be 
said to carry with it its own commentary ; nevertheless, a 
few remarks elucidatory of certain parts of it not easily 
understood by persons removed from the scene of action, 
may not be deemed objectionable. 

I think, from the context of the report, but one impres- 



384 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

sion will be made upon every fair and nnbiased mind — 
that whatever may have been the motives which governed 
the conduct of the Agents on the part of tlie United 
States, in making the late investigations in the jSTation, the 
results of those investigations have been such as to warrant 
a belief that, if the motives had been the suppression, and 
not the development, of truth, no other results could have 
followed, 

[The rest of this paragraph, referring to the alleged re- 
fusal of certain persons to verify their statements by oath, 
&c., not deemed important for insertion here.] 

The examination of Tlambly, the interpreter, and confi- 
dential friend of the Agent, formerly reported to you by 
your own Commissioners as a base and unworthy fellow, 
was distinguished for its irregularity. The object of that 
examination was to lay a broad foundation for the rupture 
of the treaty, by showing it to be the offspring of bribery 
and corruption, and the most enormously wicked contri- 
vances ; and to traduce the characters and discredit the 
testimony of some of the most respectable men among us. 
How bad must that cause be which would employ such an 
instrument to accomplish such a purpose I 

When Yoholo, a principal Chief in the Council, made a 
talk detailing circumstances connected with the late nego- 
tiations at the Indian Springs, Col. Williamson, one of the 
Commissioners, who was present, and who had also been a 
close observer of occurrences at the Springs, said to Gener- 
eral Gaines that he knew, of his own knowledge, tlie state- 
ments of Yoholo to be false : the General answered, that 
he would not believe the congregated world, if it were to 
say so. Now you will have an opportunity of seeing that 
the statements of the Indian Chief are in direct contradic- 
tion to the statements of the Commissioners of the United 
States and their Secretary, of Col. Williamson himself, of 
all the friendly Chiefs, and of every respectable white man 
who was present at the Indian Springs. 

The refusal of General Gaines to permit a separate ex- 
amination of the Chiefs, in his presence, as the only mode 
of extracting the truth, and after having more than once 
promised it, is as unaccountable as it was unexpected. 

It is understood that the Indians could produce no law 
authorizing the execution of Mcintosh ; yet, Gen. Gaines 
must have taken for granted the existence of such a law, 
for he passes by the murder as justifiable homicide. The 



CHiP. XI.] LETTER CONTINUED. 385 

whole body of evidence, as you will see, completely dis- 
proves the existence *of the law. 

The refusal of Gen. Gaines to admit the Commissioners 
of Georgia, as such, to a participation of the Indian Coun- 
•cils in all matters touching the interests of Georgia, was a 
wrong done to the State, and an indignity offered to its 
constituted authorities. 

The interdict put upon our Commissioners, by General 
Gaines, to announce to the Indians, according to their in- 
structions, the resolution of this Government to make the 
survey, and to represent to them the harmlessness and 
innoc'ency of the act, whilst the General announced the 
resolution of his own Government to prevent it, was a fur- 
ther wrong done to the State, and a disrespect manifested 
of the authority which gave that instruction. 

A gentleman of clear intellect, pure morals, honorable 
character, and great prudence, is selected by the Governor 
to hold a talk with the Indians — he performs that duty — 
makes his report, and that report is at once discredited on 
the naked word of the Indians. Gen. Mcintosh writes 
three several letters to the Governor, subscribed by his own 
proper hand, giving his assent to the survey of the country ; 
the friendly Chiefs, Marshall included, repeatedly assure 
the Governor, that they, one and all, consent to the survey ; 
a certificate is obtained from this same Marshall and a 
white man, to prove that General Mcintosh refused his 
assent; General Gaines immediately comes to the conclu- 
sion that this assent was never given. 

The admission of free communication with the Indians, 
to every other description of persons, and the denial of it 
to the Georgia Commissioners, was a further wrong done 
to Georgia. 

Indeecl, sir, it would appear, from the reports of the 
Commissioners, that all or any description of testimony 
would be willingly received on the one side, and particu- 
larly that description of it which would exculpate the Agent, 
excuse the hostile Indians, prevent the survey of the lands, 
or effect the abrogation of the treaty ; and that on the 
other side everything was to be discredited, or received, at 
best, with many grains of allowance, and every act or pro- 
ceeding of the Commissioners of the United States, or of 
the constituted authorities of the State, resolved into cor- 
ruption and depravity. 

When General Gaines states, in one of his letters to the 
Governor, that the hostile party outnumber the friendly, in 

49 



386 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. SI. 

the proportion of something; like fifty to one, it is not easy 
to understand liim. If it be true, as the General seems to 
believe, that he has pacified and reconciled the two parties, 
there is no longer any Mcintosh party — but if the General 
means there was any such disproportion between the 
strength of the two parties, whilst Mcintosh lived, he is 
widely mistaken. If Mcintosh had survived to this mo- 
ment, the probability is his party would have been the 
strongest. 

Suffer me to add a few particulars, which make the 
condition of the friendly party most pitiable. Independ- 
ently of no atonement being oftered for the blood of 
Mcintosh, the money, according to the construction of the 
treaty, is taken from the pockets of the wives, children, 
brothers and friends of Mcintosh, and paid^, over to the 
hostile Chiefs who murdered him, contrary to every prin- 
ciple of justice and stipulation of treaty, as if you intended 
it as the reward of gallant and meritorious acts commanded 
by yourselves ; and this the friendly Chiefs cannot but feel 
most deeply. JSTobody acquainted with the Indian charac- 
ter, can ever believe that General Gaines will ever make 
either a safe or permanent pacification until the offering 
of blood for blood has fulfilled the law and the usage of the 
country. An ephemeral peace may be patched up by force 
or menace — but ephemeral it will be, making, in the end, 
the catastrophe the more bloody. 

I had written you of a certain personage of South Caro- 
lina having intermeddled in this matter, according to 
information communicated to me and submitted to you. 
There is a strong chain of corroborative circumstances, as 
you will see, to establish the facts there alleged, and 
running through the entire mass of evidence. The object 
undoubtedly was the annulment of the treaty. 

Whatever knavery or folly may suggest, with the view 
to disannul the treaty, wall, of course, be unheeded at 
Washington. But, indeed. Sir, I very much doubt, unless 
you have looked with a scrutinizing eye to the history of 
this matter, whether some of the self-interested oppugners 
of the treaty may not lead you into error. The idea that 
the entire Creek Nation is alone competent to make a 
treaty, is the most fallacious that could be entertained ; it 
is so" far from true in the general, that, unless by merest 
accident, it never happens to be true in any particular. 

You have only to turn to the notes of Col. Hawkins, 
whose authority you cannot dispute, to be satisfied that, 
according to the laws and usages of the Nation, the most 



CiiAP. XL] LETTER CONTINUED. 387 

important public affairs, involving vital interests, are de- 
termined, not by a majority, but by a minority, and fre- 
quently a small minority oi' the Nation. In the whole 
course of his long- residence among them, he never knew 
the most popular war concurred in by a majority; and all 
authorities and all custom will prove to you, that, with 
regard to the most important of their national acts, having 
relation either to peace or war, Coweta must take the lead. 
If a treaty be signed by the Chiefs of Coweta, it is consid- 
ered good — if not signed by tliem, good for nothing. Geor- 
gia was settled in 'o2'-^' : in '33 or '34 the first treaty with 
the Creeks was held ; then I think in '36, and again in '39. 
The Cowetas are always foremost ; their councils are invari- 
ably liolden on the Coweta ground, and Gen. Oglethorpe 
paid them his first visit there. Hence, it is stated, in the 
evidence, that Mcintosh had the power to sell the whole 
country, and hence the great efforts made to prevail on the 
old Coweta Chief, Etome Tustunnuggee, not to sell the 
country — efforts which succeeded at Broken Arrow ; but 
tliis old and ill-fated chieftain came to me, afterwards, 
as you read in the documents, to say he had been deceived 
by bad white men, and was opposed to the sale at Broken 
Arrov/, but then his eyes were opened, and he would fol- 
low the advice of his Father, the President, and sell the 
lands. 

Having made this recapitulation and commentary, permit 
me to subjoin, that, for the gratification of a few mercenary 
and sordid characters in the Indian country, you threaten 
the most flagrant injustice to Georgia. 

In the country to be surveyed, within the limits of Geor- 
gia, none, or very few, of the hostile party reside ; and 
every one of the opposite party seeks the survey as a 
measure of convenience and interest. The survey will, 
in the first instance, extend no further West than the 
Chattahoochee, the act of the Legislature leaving it dis- 
cretionary with the Governor, to run to that river before 
the boundary line between Georgia and Alabama shall 
have been ascertained. 

Having corresponded with the Governor of Alabama 
upon this subject, and received his assurance that the Legis- 
lature of that State will immediately, on its first meeting 
in Kovember, cordially co-operate with Georgia in running 
the line, and there being difficulty in ascertaining the pre- 
cise point at which that line will commence, the running is 

* Georgia was settled in 1733.— Ed. 



388 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

postponed to meet tlie wishes and expectations of the State 
of Alabama. 

The evidence which remains to be taken by the Commis- 
sioners, will be forwarded as soon as received. 

It will be remembered that, in his letter of 15th August, 
to the Secretary of War, the Governor authorized that 
officer to " inform the President that, until the will of the 
Legislature of Georgia is expressed, no measures will be 
taken to execute the survey." This put a stop, for the time, 
to one irritating cause of controversy. On the 31st of 
August, the Secretary wrote to the Governor, acknowledg- 
ing, for the President, the receipt of certain letters from 
him, with their enclosures, &c., and stating that whilst the 
President deeply regretted the diiferent views of the treaty 
which the Governor entertained, from those which the 
President had " found himself, upon the most deliberate 
consideration," &c., "compelled to take, he is anxiously 
desirous to avoid anything which, dictated by no abso- 
lute necessity, might have a tendency to widen differences, 
in his belief otherwise easily reconcilable," &c., &c. He 
stated, further, that the President " felt it, therefore, his 
duty to decline entering upon any discussion with you which 
can be forborne, and he perceives nothing in your letters 
which the interests of the people of Georgia,- or of the rest 
of the Union, require to be discussed with you," &c., &c. 
After referring to the duties which the United States owed 
to the Indians, and expressing the President's hope that 
they had not been " violated in the conclusion of the 
treaty at the Indian Springs," he added : " He has heard, 
therefore, with the most lively satisfaction, the determina- 
tion of your Excellency to proceed no further in the survey, 
till the Congress of the United States and the Legislature 
of Georgia shall have had an opportunity of acting on the 
subject, as, in their respective judgments, the rights, 
duties and obligations of all the parties concerned, may 
require." He referred to the death of Mcintosh, the 
restoration of peace to the tribe, and stated that to " con- 



Chap. XL] GEN. GAINES' LETTER. 389 

firm this state of tranquillity, and to renew peaceable and 
reasonable efforts to reconcile the Indians to the measure 
of removing from tlic territory, appeared to the President 
to be his duty, in which he will not abandon the hope of 
being seconded by the Governor and authorities of Geor- 
gia." He concluded by saying: " The subject, in all its 
aspects, will be submitted to the consideration of Congress 
at the approaching session ; and all the instructions of the 
officers of the United States, as well as their conduct 
under them, will be subject to the animadversions of that 
body upon them, for approbation or censure, as they may 
appear to have deserved." 

We must now recur, once more, to Gen. Gaines. Hav- 
ing been forbidden to hold official intercourse with the 
Governor, he nevertheless proceeded to write insulting 
letters to him, through the newspapers. On the 23d of 
August, he addressed a letter to the Governor, through the 
columns of the Georgia Journal, dated " Head-quarters, 
Eastern Department, Indian Springs, 16th August, 1825," 
and signed "Edmund Pendleton Gaines, Major- General 
Commanding^ We make room for a few extracts, at 
which the reader will be amused, if he is not instructed by 
them. He said : " I had seen with regret that for a U. S. 
officer to write to you, was, in fact, to write for the news- 
papers, and that to differ from you in opinion, was to be 
denounced as an offender. Since this was apparent to me, 
that is, since the receipt of yours of the ITth July, I have 
been well aware of the tax which our little differences of 
opinion would impose upon me — a tax which conscious 
innocence suffers under the groundless imputation of guilt- 

" I was not, therefore, much surprised at the gross mis- 
representations of your dedimus protestatem Commission- 
ers, nor at the concluding paragraph of ^''ours of the 6tli, 
wherein you say, ' I have lost no time to direct you to 
forbear further intercourse with this Government.' These 
expressions, like others contained in some of your previous 
letters, (but of which I took no notice,) vvherein you speak 



390 T'IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

of my using tlie militaiy against Georgia, &c., &c., appear 
to evince a very liigli degree of that prejudice and inflated 
j^ride of office, which might well be expected to prompt 
some little European despot ' to feel power and forget right.' 
"Were you some little German Prince, for example, (the 
most self-important and overbearing of all the crowned 
tribe,) and I a Turk, it would in that case excite no surprise 
that the little German Prince should address the Turk as 
you have more than once addressed me, and, after freely 
indulging in words of learned length and thundering sound, 
conclude with the expressions above quoted, viz : ' I have 
lost no time to direct you to forTjcar furtlieT intercourse with 
this Qonernment? But 1 am not a Turk, nor are you a 
prince ! I am a plain native of Virginia, and an adopted 
citizen of Tennessee," &c., etc. 

On the 30th of August, he published another letter, in 
the Georgia Patriot, dated the 29th, and headed and signed 
in the same military style. He said : " I have received 
your communication througli Mr. Secretary Pierce, with 
two papers purporting to be copies of letters from your 
Excellency to the President of the United States, bearing 
date the 26tli July and 6th August — wherein it appears 
you are pleased to write cd me and of me, notwithstanding 
your avowed resolution not to write to rue. To this wise 
expedient, to preserve the immense weight of dignity un- 
der which your Excellency labors, I can have no objection. 
I take this occasion, before noticing your assumed fticts 
and arguments, to assure you that I have no authority 
whatever from the President of the United States or De- 
partment of War, to write or speak to you upon any other 
than public and official subjects — such as I liave with per- 
fect frankness and cordiality communicated to you, pre- 
vious to the receipt of your letter of the 17th July." 
Again : " To your Excellency I have no apology to oifer, 
I propose, however, that, in our future correspondence, 
after disposing of your futile charges against me, that you 
and I may confine ourselves to our ])%d)lic and official 
duties. When these are accomplished, I hereby promise, 



Chap. XI.] FURTHER ABOUT GEN. GAINES. 391 

should you desire it, to correspoud with you, unofficially, 
until ' we shall have exhausted the argument ;' and then 
we will stand by our — goose quills, and talk of ' valor'' — 
about which you have written to the President." 

The Governor wrote, as follows, to the President : 

Executive Department, \ 
Milledgemlle, ^Ist Aug., 1825. f 

Sir : In the enclosed Gazette, you will find another in- 
solent letter, dated the 16th inst., addressed by your Agent, 
Brevet Major-General Gaines, to the Chief Magistrate of this 
State. Having been betrayed by his passions into the most 
violent excesses, he is presented before you, at this moment, 
as your commissioned officer and authorized agent, with a 
corps of regulars at his heels, attempting to dragoon and 
overawe the constituted authorities of an independent State, 
and, on the eve of a great election, amid the distractions of 
party, taking side wUh the one political party against the 
other, and addressing electioneering papers almost vfeekly 
to the Chief Magistrate, through the public prints, couched 
in language of contumely and insult, and defiance, and for 
which, were I to send him to you in chains, I Avould trans- 
gress nothing of the public law. The same moderation 
and forbearance with which I have endeavored heretofore 
to deport myself, in my intercourse with you, and from 
which I trust there has in no instance been a departure, but 
on the highest necessity, have restrained me from resorting 
to harsh and ofifensive measures against him. You will see, 
however, if this oflicer has been thus acting by your 
authority or countenance, you have an awful atonement to 
make, both to your contemporaries and to posterity. 

But if, contr'ar}^ to either, he has assumed the responsi- 
bility, it is expected that your indignant reprobation of his 
conduct will be marked by the most exemplary punishment 
which the laws will enable you to inflict. 

I demand, therefore, as Chief Magistrate of Georgia, his 
immediate recall, and his arrest, trial and punishment, un- 
der the rnles and articles of war. 

You will find, in the same paper, sundry affidavits prov- 
ing the falsity of the certificate given hj Marshall and 
Edwards to General Gaines, and which further prove that 
General Gaines must have obtained it to wield as an in- 
strument, in the pending com est, on the side of one parly 
against the other. As 1 write this, another Gazette has 



392 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

been put into my hands, containing another letter, of sub- 
sequent date and similar character, which is also enclosed 
for your information. 

Very Respectfully, 

G. M. Teoup. 
The President of the United States, 
Washington City. 

To this letter the Governor received a reply from the 
Secretar}^ of War, dated 19th September, saying: 

" The President has decided that he cannot, consistently 
with his views of the subject, accede to your demand to 
have Greneral Gaines arrested. He perceives no sufficient 
necessity to depart from the course he had determined to 
pursue before the receipt of your letter, and which I com- 
municated to you fully in the last paragraph of mine of the 
31st of August," &c., &c. 

In this letter, the Secretary enclosed (to the Governor) a 
copy of his letter of same date, to Gen. Gaines, and said : 
" In so doing, I give you a new proof of the frankness by 
which the Executive has been guided in its intercourse with 
you," &c., &c. 

In his letter to Gen. Gaines, the Secretary enclosed a 
copy of Gov. Troup's letter demanding the General's arrest, 
&c., and, after adding that the President had decided not 
to " accede to this demand," and expressing the President's 
regret that General Gaines had permitted himself to 
"indulge a tone whose effect will be to destroy that 
harmony which the President is so much disposed to 
cherish," &c., &c., and the President's determination to 
preserve the most scrupulous decorum in official inter- 
course with the State authorities, he said : 

"In communicating to you the disapprobation of the 
President, as well for writing as publishing those letters, 
and his injunction that, in your official intercourse with 
Gov. Troup, in future, you abstain from anything that may 
be deemed offensive, I am directed to add, as an act 
of justice to you, that the President sees in the serious 
charges made against you by Gov. Troup, and the pub- 
licity given to them, and which the letters complained of 
were intended to repel, circumstances which go far, in 



Chap. XL] AFFIDAVITS ABOUT GEN. GAINES. 393 

liis opinion, to palliate your conduct, and without wliich 
palliation the President would have found it his duty to 
have yielded to the demand of Gov. Troup." 

The next letter from Governor Troup to the Secretary 
of War, will close our notice of 'this dispute with General 
Gaines. In that letter he is charged by the Governor with 
having aided in publicly traducing and vilifying him, " for 
the purpose of influencing the general election in this 
State, in behalf of his favorite candidate."- This was de- 
nied by Gen. Gaines, in a card published in the Georgia 
Patriot of 13th September, in which he said : " I have 
never, to my knowledge, endeavored to influence the vote 
or the political opinion of any man in the State of Geor- 
gia, in regard to the ensuing election." And yet there 
was the aftidavit of one Michael Watson, who deposed, 
on the 10th of i^oveml)er, that in the month of August, 
"in a conversation that was held between and among 
several persons then at the Springs, General Edmund P. 
Gaines, of the United States Army, being present, the 
subject of conversation turned upon the late Indian treaty, 
and the proposed survey then about to be made by the 
order of his Excellency George M. Troup, Governor of 
the State of Georgia: he (Gen. Gaines) stated in public 
company, that if Governor Troup made the survey or at- 
tempted it, that he would be tried for treason and hung ; 
that General Gaines also stated that Governor Troup and 
his friends were intriguing demagogues: that in the same 
conversation General Gaines manifested and expressed 
much warmth of hostile feeling towards Governor Troup 
and his friends," &c. The Hon. Christopher B. Strong^ 
deposing, probably to the same occasion, said : 

* At a dinner to Gen. Gaines, at Clinton, on 17th August, 1825, the following were 
among the partisan volunteer toasts: 

His Excellency Governor Troup: A man of war I Ho "cares for no responsibilities;" as 
bravo a knight as Don Quixote or his squire Sancho Panza. 

Gen. John Clark : A former trouble to the Indians — a present trouble to some of their 
kindred. 

Gen. John C'larJc : Too honest for intrigue, too independent to entreat for oflBce, but 
always willing to serve his country ; may he, on the first Monday in October, be elected 
Governor by the people of Georgia, and not, like the present incumbent, by bribery and 
corruption. — Ed. 

50 



394 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROtJP. [Chap. XI. 

" On the lltli day of August, in the year 1825, at the 
Indian Springs, in tlie County of Monroe, of said State, he 
heard a conversation commence between Gen. Edmund P. 
Gaines, of the United States army, and Milton Cooper, of 
Putnam, in which General Gaines appeared to manifest 
much passion, and, after this deponent got near enough to 
hear what was said, he heard the said General say, ' he is 
a demagogue, his partisans are demagogues — unprincipled 
demagogues, he is guilty of treason,' ' and the Commis- 
sioners have stated wilfully, falsely,' or words to that eifect. 
I was informed by several gentlemen then present, that the 
former epithets were used in relation and applied to Gov. 
Troup of Georgia. A severe controversy ensued betwixt 
the General and myself, which I deem it unnecessary here 
to detail. This deponent further saith, that, from what 
passed at that time, he has no doubt but that the first men- 
tioned expressions of reproach were used by Gen. Gaines 
in direct relation to Governor Troup." 

Joel Bailey also deposed that, in the month of July, 
" Gen. Gaines said that he dared Governor Troup to 
attempt to survey the land lately ceded by the Indians ; that 
he would have an armed force and arrest every Surveyor 
as fast as they crossed Flint river. That if the Governor 
of the little demagogue State of Georgia did not mind, 
that he (Gaines) would get hold of him, and that the peo- 
ple of Georgia were a set of demagogues.'' 

Without professing to decide whether these affidavits 
proved Gen. Gaines to have been an active partisan of the 
opposition, we think it clear that the influence of his name 
and character was against the administration of Governor 
Troup ; and, consequently, operated in favor of his enemies. 
We must do him the justice to say that, in his card in the 
Georgia Patriot, he said : " as I have been charged, how- 
ever falsely, with an attempt to meddle with the political 
aiFairs of the State, Avith a view to the ensuing election, I 
have determined to suspend the publication of my promised 
exposition until after the election." 

Governor Troujj to the Secretary of War. 

Executive Department. ) 
Milledgemlle, lUh Oct., 1825. j 
Sir : ^Notwithstanding the resolution of the President, 



Chap. XI.] LETTER TO SECRETARY OF WAR. 395 

repeated in your letter of the lOtli ult., to refer the com- 
plaints of this Government against the officers of yours, 
who have given it offence, to the consideration of Con- 
gress — a resolution considered here of most extraordinary 
character, inasmuch as it is the transfer of a subject over 
which the President, by the Constitution, has exclusive ju- 
risdiction, to a power which has no jurisdiction of it at 
all — I cannot forbear calling his attention to a statement 
contained in your letter to Gen. Gaines, which, assumed to 
be true. althouo;h not true, is made the justification of the 
President in resisting the demand of the Governor of Geor- 
gia, and in extenuating the conduct of his officer. The par- 
agraph in your letter embracing the statement, reads as 
follows: " I am directed to add, as an act of justice to 
you, that the President sees in the serious charges made 
against you by Governor Troup, and the publicity given to 
them, and which the letters complained of were intended 
to repel, circumstances which go far in his opinion to pal- 
liate your conduct." 'Now, sir, so far from this being true, 
the opposite is true. ISTothing off'ensive or exceptionable 
was ever written to that officer, before he had sanctioned, 
by his approbation, an offensive letter written by ^''our 
Special Agent on the 21st June, and addressed to the 
Agent for Indian Affairs, in which the authorities of Geor- 
gia are wantonly abused for injustice, oppression and 
tyranny practiced against that Agent ; or before he had ob- 
tained a false certificate from two base and unworthy men, 
to traduce and vilify the character of the Chief Magistrate 
of Georgia, which lie ordered to be published of his mere 
volition, on pretence that false rumors were in circulation, 
of what, or about whom, he does not say ; and this, too, 
done, as was afterwards made manifest, for the purpose of 
influencing the general election in this State in behalf of 
his favorite candidate. That you may entertain no doubt 
of the correctness of this statement, and the incorrectness 
of the statement of the President, you have only to com- 
pare the dates of the various letters and of their publica- 
tion. It will be seen that' before Gen. Gaines could have 
received my letter of the 16th of July, of which he com- 
plained, he had already ordered the publication of his of 
the 10th of July, to which it was an answer. 

You will be furnished, in time, with additional testi- 
mony, to show the very reprehensible conduct of the same 
oflficer, in his deportment towards the authorities of Geor- 
gia, not with any, the least, expectation that justice will be 



396 ^IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

rendered by the President to those authorities, but in 
discharge of duties which they owe themselves. 
I have the honor to be 

Your obedient servant, 

' G. M. Teoup. 
The Hon. James Barbour. 
Secretary of War. 

The Southern Kecorder, of the 9th of August, contained 
a card "to the public," from Col. Crowell, to which was 
appended the following letter : 

MiLLEDGEVILLE, GeO., AugUSt Ist, 1825. 

Sir : I acknowledge the receipt of your defence, ac- 
companied by the testimony collected to rebut the charges 
preferred against yon by his Excellency Governor Troup, 
as well as the testimony taken against you by a committee 
of the Legislature of Georgia, and that interspersed through- 
out the volume of documents furnished me by the Govern- 
or of Georgia. 

After a diligent examination of all the testimony taken 
on both sides during the investigation, and coming before 
me, I feel it incumbent on me to say thatico: sideryou, in 
reference to the charges made against you, not only an in- 
nocent, but a much injuied, man. This result is the more 
honorable to you, as you have only had it in your power to 
avail yourself of vohmtary testimony. 

I sliall make this report* to the Secietary of War, to 
whom you will look for the decisio7i of the President, 
which will confirm or reverse this opinion. In the mean 
time you will consider your suspension withdrawn. 
With respect, sir. 

Your obedient servant, 

T. P. Andrews, 
Special Agent. 
To Colonel John Crowell, 

Indian Agent, &c., &c. 

It is proper here to state the President confirmed this 
report. 
In September, Major Andrews published, in the National 

* Tho Report of Major Andrews to the Secretary of War, with the documents appen-^ed 
to it, occupies more than 150 pages of printed matter, in octavo form. It concludes with the 
expression of opinion in regard to Col. Crowell, the Indian Agent, that "he has fully succeeded 
in establishing his entire innocence of the charges preferred against him." — Ed. 



Chap. XL] CANVASS FOR GOVERNOR. 397 

Journal and tlie National Intelligencer, a long " reply" to 
what he called the " Re] orts of the Georgia Comraission- 
ers," in which he was very severe in his strictures upon the 
official conduct of those gentlemen, and in which he did 
not hesitate to attack their characters as men, &c., &c. 

In the mean time, the canvass for Governor was proceed- 
ing with much acrimony and bitterness. The papers 
teemed with articles of great warmth on both sides. 
" Tkoup and the Treaty" was the rallying cry of the friends 
of the Governor, whilst it was contended by his enemies 
that his defeat was necessary to the repose of the country 
and the peaceful settlement of the Indian controversy. As 
early as the 4th of July, the celebration of the day was 
made the occasion of what were considered patriotic out- 
bursts, but what were, in many instances, the offspring of 
party violence and heated cpntrovers3\'''" 

Amongst other objections to Governor Troup, it was said 
his father had been a Tory ; and then it was said *. general 
Clark's father was no better. Gov. Troup was charged 
with being an alien^ born in Florida ; General Clark was 
accused of being a Yazoo man, and with having shot at 
the effigy of Washington. It is hardly important to add, 
that none of these charges were made out to the satisfaction 
of the friends of the candidate against whom they were 
urged. 

If party virulence had stopped with accusations, which, 
if true, would have affected the fitness for office or useful- 
ness of either candidate, there would have been ground of 
excuse; but political rancor, in its opposition to Governor 
Troup, went beyond this. His domestic privacy was as- 

* The following toasts drunk on the 4th of July, at an interior town, cannot be consid- 
ered fair specimens. It is due to the Clark man to say that, iu a card which he afterwards 
pulilished, ho declared that whilst his toast expressed " the sentiments of a large number," 
and contained his real opinion, yet he would not have given it, if another sentiment, in favor 
of Gov. Troup, had not been first offered at a dinner from which he had endeavored to keep 
out party politics. Here are the sentiments : 

" George M. Troup— M&y he receive what he deserves, the infamy due to every man who 
attempts to cxcit'J civil w.ir and destroy the Union." 

" George M. Troup— Uaj every hair on his head be a standing army, and every soldier be 
armed with a thundering cannon to drive his enemies to h — 11." — Ed. 



398 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

sailed ; and it was basely and falsely insinuated by some, 
who had the cunning to do secretly what they had not the 
boldness to avow openly, that the ill health of the partner 
of his bosom was caused by conjugal ill treatment. That 
some dupes may have believed the slander, is probably 
true ; but the high-minded and better informed even of his 
opponents refused to lend themselves to so cruel an expe- 
dient to defeat an honorable man. 

Amidst the jarring elements of discord, and the turmoil of 
a fierce party war. Governor Troup remained as unmoved 
as it was possible for any man to be, under the circumstan- 
ces. It is believed that not the slightest detail of business 
escaped his attention ; and we have certainly seen that he 
kept the Indian question in full view. • A silly rumor was 
started, that he was to be withdrawn, and Hon. William H. 
Crawford run in his stead. A short time before the elec- 
tion, his health became somewhat impaired, and it was at 
one time reported that he was dead. 

The 3rd of October at length arrived. If public excite- 
ment had been great, public expectation and anxiety were 
now to be greater. The Georgia Journal, of the 11th of 
October, in noticing the election, said : 

To a calm and indifferent spectator, Milledgeville, for the 
past week, would have furnished a wide field of amuse- 
ment. The anxiety visible in all countenances, the avidity 
with which news from every quarter was sought after, the 
hailing of post riders, and the stopping of travelers as they 
entered the town, and the multitude crowding around them, 
all pressing forward to hear the result ; and the alternate 
elevation and depression of spirits of one party or the other, 
according as the news agreed with, or differed from, what 
was expected — all together made up a spectacle which 
equaled anything seen in Athens on the invasion by Philip, 
or in Rome when Ocesar was marching upon it. But now 
all is comj)aratively quiet. The result is anticipated with 
much confidence to be in favor of Troup. 

The fame paper, of the 18th, announced the certain re- 
election of Gov. Troup. On the result being known in 
Savannah, the citizens fired a salute in honor of the victory ; 
and another was fired by the Chatham Artillery, of which 



Chap. XL] RESULT OF ELECTION, &c. 399 

ancient corps Gov. Troup bad been formerly a regular, and 
was tlien an bonorary, member. 

There were in Georgia, at tbat time, only sixty Counties. 
Governor Troup bad resided in Mclntosb, Cbatbam, Bryan, 
Montgomery and Laurens Counties. The vote in tbese 
Counties was, as follows : 

-Clark, - - S3 
" - - 132 
'^ - - 1 

" - - 61 
" - - 111 

In Wilkes, tbe former residence of Gen. Clark, tbe vote 
was: Troup, 669; Clark, 611. In Baldwin, tbe residence 
of Gen. Clark, and wbere eacb bad resided as Governor, 
tbe vote stood : Troup, 317— Clark, 182. 

Tbe official vote, in tbe wliole State, as determined by 
tbe Legislature, was : 

Troup, - 20,515 

Clark, --.-... 19,862 



Mclntosb — Troup, 
Cbatbam, 


117- 

- 595 


Bryan, " - 
Montgomery, " 
Laurens, " - 


125 
- 116 

175 



Majority for Troup, . . . . . (3S3 

Tbe General Assembly met, at Milledgeville, on tbe 7tb 
of November, wben it was ascertained tbat a majority^ in 
each House^ v^ere political friends of the defeated candidate. 
In tbe Senate, Allen B. Bowell, of Mclntosb, was elected 
President ; and, in tbe House, Tbomas W. Murray, of 
Lincoln, was elected Speaker. 

Tbe -inauguration of tbe Governor took place on tbe lOtb 
of November. 

His inaugural address was, as follows : 

Fellow-Citizens : I come, once more, and j)robably for 
tbe last time, to present myself before you and take tbe 
oatb of office. Possessing no very great confidence in my 
own qualifications for tbe public service, I bave not babitu- 
ally or pertinaciously sougbt tbe public favor. It bas been 
extended to me, freely, frequently, and by tbe people, in a 
spirit of abundant kindness, sometimes even in advance, 
always in a degree far transcending my merits and deserts. 
Tbe iate election by tbe people, approbatory of tbe former 



400 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

one by their representativ^es, inspires a belief that the acts 
of the administration have not been altogether censurable, 
and that the faults and errors which belong to them, being 
of the head, not of the heart, have, on that account, re- 
ceived a kind and indulgent judgment. 

Besolved, as I am, at all times, to do what, under the 
constitution and laws, my judgment approves^ it will be 
my consolation, in the midst of troubles and embarrass- 
ments, that what is intended well, will be well received ; and 
that if, at the end of our labors, aught shall have resulted 
to the public of benefit or advantage, a duo measure of 
praise and commendation will be awarded. Taking dif- 
ferent views of the same subject, honest differences of 
opinion are to be regarded with mutual deference and 
respect. The utmost we can hope from our deliberations 
under free institutions, is, that, the love of country pre- 
dominating over every other love, we will discard the 
partialities and prejudices which attach to men, and, for- 
getting the strifes and contentions of the day, will unite 
in support of every measure promotive of the public wel- 
fare. 

To husband the resources of the State — to economize 
the public expenditure — to organize a system of Internal 
Improvement — to foster the institutions which direct the 
public Education — to give vigor and efficiency to the 
armed power to execute the laws and defend the State 
against her enemies — to vindicate, with firmness and 
dignity, all her rights ; but, more especially, to assert, 
p'actiGally^ those rights of sovereignty without which 
Georgia would be independent only in name ; and to cul- 
tivate harmony between the different branches of the 
government, will be equally your duty, fellow-citizens, as 
mine ; and, by cordial co-operation and patriotic eff'orts, I 
doubt not we will ultimately find our reward in the happi- 
ness and prosperity of the people. 

The following is the message of the Governor, transmitted 
to the Legislature on the second day of the session. 

Executive Depaktment, ) 

Milledgemlle, Sth November^ 1825. [ 
Fellow- Citizens of the Senate 

and House of Representatives : 

The political year just closed has not been without bless- 
ings, or without trials. Abundant thankfulness is due for 



Chap. XL] ANNUAL MESSAGE OF 1825. 401 

the former, to the Giver of every good and perfect gift, 
not less for exemption from war, pestilence and famine, 
than for the enjoyment of more than ordinary health, 
propitious seasons, and an ample harvest. For the hitter, 
as tiiey belong to mortals, it is our holy duty, in the spirit 
of Christian resignation, to bow with reverential submis- 
sion, and to implore the Omnipotent who orders all for the 
best, to convert them into blessings. The year has been 
rendered memorable, too, by the sojourn of the great and 
amiable LaFayette ; the universal joy diffused by it— the 
display of all the charities and graces of life in the over- 
flowings of grateful hearts, inseparable from his presence, 
and by the tears of millions, when, after giving to our 
country his last benediction, he re-embarked for his native 
land. 

The recapitulation of the events of the last two years — the 
results of our intercourse and correspondence with the 
General Government, painful as it may be, is a duty too 
sacred to be omitted, hi performing it, no apology is due 
for the prolix detail, so inconsistent with the analytical 
character of a State paper like this. The variety of topics, 
the multitude of tacts, justify a departure from the ordinary 
usage. A tedious expose may be more accej)table than a 
superficial survey, as the contemplation of the whole 
ground will enable you so to apply the resources of your wis- 
dom and patriotism to the exigency, as, with the assistance 
of Divine Providence, to avert the mischiefs which threat- 
en, make our own ways righteous in our own sight, and in 
the sight of all others, and bring back to a sense of 
justice those who, in their aberrations from it, have done 
us wrong. '^ 

I had,' for the iirst time, come into office, v/hcn a subject 
of peculiar delicacy presented itself, and being intimately 
connected with the independence of the elective franchise, 
without which it would be vain for Georgia to claim for 
herself the attributes of a sovereign State, it was made 
known to the President, that, on the occasion of the elec- 
tion just then terminated, an officer in his employ, bearing^ 
a high and dignified commission, and being a citizen of 
another State, had abandoned his post to mingle in the 
strifes of that election ; had espoused the cause of one of 
the parties, to the prejudice of the other, and, by the 
weiglit and influence of his office, united with the most 
enthusiastic ardor, had rendered himself so signally con- 
spicuous, that the Chief Magistrate could not conscientiously 

51 



402 I^IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

forbear, among his first acts, to complain to the Executive 
Government of the Union of this outrage upon the most 
sacred of all the rights of sovereignty. An occasion of- 
fered, at the moment, to give weight to the presentation, 
and it was embraced. The head of the Missionary Estab- 
lishment, in the Creek Nation, had been provoked by the 
ill usage and lawless conduct of the same officer, to prefer 
certain charges against him, which, if supported by truth, 
could not fail, it was believed, to bring upon him the severest 
animadversion of his own Government; and it was hoped 
that the remonstrance of the Governor of Georgia, thrown 
into the scale, would accomplish what seemed to him an 
important object, the removal from office of a man, who, 
by his prejudices and passions, would present the most 
formidable obstacles to the satisfaction of the just claims 
of Georgia against the General Government, at least so 
long as a certain person filled the first office of that State. 
They failed of their intent ; and whatever sentence miglit 
have been passed on the memorial of the Missionary, the 
remonstrance of the Governor of Georgia was unheeded. 
The inference was inevitable, that, in virtue either of posi- 
tive instruction, or of implied consent, the iVgent of Indian 
Affairs, being a citizen of another State, and resident in 
the Nation, would, at any time, consult both duty and 
inclination in deserting his station to lend himself, with his 
insignia of office, to any party in the State, whose views 
it might be the interest of himself or of his Government 
to promote. 

The State of Georgia had claims upon the General Gov- 
ernment, of great magnitude ; her territorial ones had been 
so long neglected,^ that time seemed to be running against 
them. The Indians were acquiring a permanency of foot- 
hold, under the direct encouragement of the United States, 
which would rivet them like their fixtures to the soil for- 
ever ; and it was seen that a day or an hour was of precious 
import to her whom an act of limitations might bar, upon 
the arbitrary edict of a stronger pov/er. 

When, therefore, in a temper not discreditable, it is 
hoped, to the author, those claims were pressed upon the 
General Government, it was answered that everything had 
been done, which, in good faith, could be done, to satisfy 
the claims of Georgia, and that now nothing could be 
done, because the Indians had said nothing should be 
done. An answer so unkind, ungenerous and faithless, 
left no alternative but to abandon or strenuously assert 
them. 



Chap. XI.] ANNUAL MESSAGE OF 1825. 403 

It was vain for the State of Georgia to prove to the 
United States, that, regardless of her claims, they had 
acquired immense tracts of country, from time to time, for 
other States and for themselves, and that, in the celebrated 
treaty of 1814, if the United States had been mindful of 
their engagements, they could as easily have acquired the 
whole country within our limits as a single acre. 

By the treaty of 1814, the Creeks were treated as a con- 
quered people, whom Georgia had assisted with her arras 
to conquer ; their boundaries were marked by the sword ; 
but charity, which begins at home, more potent than any 
stipulations of the articles of 1802, acquired for the United 
States a very large extent of rich country within the limits of 
Alabama, whilst twenty millions of acres within the limits 
of Georgia were reserved and guarantied to the Indians, 
and this guaranty subsequently produced against us to de- 
feat our claim to the same territory. Georgia could not 
see, in all this, that scrupulous fidelity in the fulfilment of 
engagements asserted for the United States. 

\Vhen, at last, the way seemed open to a further acquisi- 
sion of territory, and Commissioners were appointed to 
negotiate with the Creeks, at Broken Arrow, Georgia fouud 
the Agents of the United States arrayed against her to 
defeat a treaty : so that it was difficult to understand 
whether the whole movement was a mockery, to sport 
with Georgia, or a perfidious betrayal by the Agents of 
the trust reposed in them. The treaty was defeated, and 
by their agency; the principal Agent appeared to rise in 
the esteem and confidence of his Government, and thus 
terminated this most disgusting scene. 

The rehearsal of what'happened immediately after, at the 
Indian Springs, would only revive recollections of the 
same odious practices of the same Agent, not less disgrace- 
ful because they were more covert and less successful. 
From this period are to be dated all the mischiefs, disorders 
and heart-burnings which followed, produced, chiefly, by 
the conduct of the same ofiicer. But, in justice to him, 
it should be said, that, from this period, he is to be consid- 
ered rather as an instrument than a principal ; as his own 
Government, looking back upon the history of the past, 
had seemed to approve his actings and doings in the gross, 
and had given every token of undiminished confidence in 
him ; so that, from that day thenceforth, whatever was said, 
done or written by him, seemed good in its sight. No 
evil report of him would be listened to ; the word of no 
man taken against him ; all testimony in his favor eagerly 



404 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XL 

received, all a2;ainst him promptly discredited : the ex- 
pressed will of the constituted authorities of the State, 
which denounced him as an enemy to its interest, disre- 
ga'-ded by his Government, and contemned by himself; in 
short, his single declaration in the face of truth, made by 
that Government the basis of the most offensive measures 
against tJiis, even to the extreme one of threatening us with 
the sword, and actually drawing out a regular force for its 
execution. 

The history of the treaty of 1835, and the character of 
the events which followed, will be best learned by the doc- 
nments and evidence heretofore published, and those now 
laid before you. The epitome is, that the treaty was as 
untainted with fraud as most other Indian treaties — was 
made with an authority long since recognized by the United 
States as competent to make it — was acquiesced in at first 
by the great body of the Nation, and would have been 
cheerfully submitted to by the whole tribe, as the hostile 
Chiefs in Council indicated to Col. Lamar, if the Agent 
had nor returned from his mission to Washington, and 
altered it. It was this ominous return from his defeat 
before the President and Senate, in which Mcintosh fore- 
saw the ruin which an infuriated man would bring upon 
him and his generation. " We are not in any danger until 
he comes home and commences hostility, and urges it him- 
self upon us," says Mclnto.h. " If ratilied, (meaning the 
treaty,) it may produce a horrid state of things among those 
nnforlunate Indians," says the Agent. What tlie penetrat- 
ing sagacity of the one foretold, soon came to pass. Mc- 
intosh was no more ; and thus the evil genius of the other, 
which predicted the coming of the whirlwind, which rode 
in it, and directed the storm, saw, in one fell sv,-oop, the 
triumph of his machinations and the fulfilment of his 
prophecy. Mcintosh and his Chiefs had given their assent 
to the survey of the country, and this assent was seized by 
the Agent to divert the public odium from himself, and 
to fasten it on the Chief Magistrate of Georgia, who had 
sought and obtained that assent. The naked declaration of 
the Agent to this effect, unsupported by a tittle of proof, 
A* as sutiicient to command the absolute credence of his 
Gc vernmunt, and, contrary to all opposing testimony of the 
most conclusive character, to wari'ant it iu charging the 
calamities of the nation upon the same magistrate as the 
author of them all ; to forbid, the survey, and to embody a 
corps of regulars to prevent it, and to continue both its 
offensive orders and its offensive armament, even after 



Chap. XL] ANNUAL MESSAGE OF 1825. 405 

another of its Agents, by false testimony, had proven, to 
its satisfaction, that no snch assent was ever given, and had 
announced to it, moreover, what was not the fact, bnt 
what, on his authority, it implicitly believed to be the fact, 
that the pacification of the Indians had been concluded, 
and, of course, order and tranquillity permanently restored ; 
nevertheless, the offensive mandate is unrevoked, and the 
parade of bayonets maintained. 

The Indian right of occupancy is the only one acknowl- 
edged by the European powers, from the beginning; the 
only one" acknowledged by all the public instruments 
through which Georgta derived her title ; the only one con- 
ceded' to the Indians by Georgia, in all her treaties with 
them, from the fxrst settlement of the country, and the only 
one recognized by the United States themseive?. 

The Spaniards and the French, without respecting even 
this right, have forcibly appropriated to themselves entire 
countries, when and where it suited them. The English 
and Americans have so far respected it, as to make com- 
pensation for the relinquishment of claim or abandonment 
of use. It is true, that, with regard to this right of use, 
the United States, in their own territory, might have given 
to it any latitude which pleased them, because the soil and 
jurisdiction belonged to them ; but, with regard to the ter- 
ritory of Georgia, where the soil and jurisdiction are indis- 
putably hers, this right of use can only be construed to 
mean, what in all the treaties it did mean, the right of use for 
hunting. When, therefore, the United States, by changing 
the mode of life of the aboriginal upon the soil of Georgia, 
changed essentially this right, and caused her lands to be 
separately appropriated for the purpose of tillage, and gave 
every encouragement to iixed habits of agriculture, they vio- 
lated the treaties in their letter and spirit, and did v^n'ong to 
Georgia. It is not less strange than true, that, of all the 
various tribes of aborigines dispersed over the vast country 
within the limits of the United States, two of them, within 
the limits of Georgia, have been specially selected as most 
fit subjects for the operation of this great scheme of recla- 
mation, and that the partial success of this scheme, (found- 
ed in wrong to Georgia, and continued in wrong,) should 
be held up to us now, as a mirror in which we are invited 
to see, at once, our own deformity and the moral beauty of 
its authors, and that this original and continued wrong 
should be set up in bar of our undoubted rights. 

The State of Georgia contends that the jurisdiction over 
the country in question, is absolute in herself; she proves it 



406 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

by all the titles tlirough which she derived her claim from 
the beginning, by the charters and proclamations of the 
mother country, by the repeated acknowledgments of the 
United States themselves, and by their solemnly expressed 
recognition in the first and second articles of the agreement 
and cession, of 1802. It was shown, that if Georgia had 
the jurisdiction, Georgia had never parted with it; and 
that, if she had it not, she can never have it in virtue of 
any authority of any power known to her. Yet, Georgia 
has been denied the right of survey of her own soil, with- 
in her own jurisdiction ; a right as inseparable from that 
jurisdiction, and as innocent as a right of way; and this, 
notwithstanding the consent to that survey, as is verily 
believed, freely given by every Chief within the limits of 
tlie territory, who could, by any possibility, suffer harm or 
detriment from it ; nay, more, it is confidently believed, that 
if the United States Government, or its Agents, had not 
extorted from one portion of the Indians, objections to the 
survey, there would not have been found a single individ- 
ual who would have thought of entertaining any; and here 
it will not escape you, that, at the Council of Broken Ar- 
row, where ihe Commissioners of Georgia were present, 
the military officer of the United States, under his instruc- 
tions, made known to the Chiefs that his Government had 
resolved not to permit the survey ; so that, if a sjurit, at 
any time, from any cause, had animated the Indian to 
hostility against Georgia, the savage would have availed 
himself of the survey, as a pretext to fall upon our people, 
and with the more ferocity, because assured that he would 
be sustained by the arms of the United States. 

The last pretext of the President, for resistance to the 
survey, is the obligation to execute the 8th article of the 
ti-eaty, which guaranties protection to the friendly Indians. 
Under that guaranty, the United States passively suffer 
Mcintosh and his friends to be murdered : in the hour of 
peril no arm is lifted to save or to protect ; the danger past ; 
the Chiefs massacred ; their property destroyed or dis- 
persed ; the survivors in Georgia asking bread and protec- 
tion of their lives, after abandoning to their enemies every 
thing valuable at home ; the United States step forth witii 
their armed power, to defend, under the 8th article of the 
treaty, these same Indians against all their enemies, and 
more particularly the Georgians, their only friends and pro- 
tectors. 

Mcintosh having fallen in the cause of the United States^ 
by the hand of treachery, the United States were bound. 



Chap. XL] ANNUAL MESSAGE OP 1825. . 40Y 

in honor, under the 8th article, to bring to punishment his 
murderers ; to restore to his friends their ranl^, power and 
property, lost in the same cause, and to have coerced the 
execution of the treaty ; all which could easily have been 
accomplished; but the Agents of the United States indulg- 
ing more of sympathy for the hostile, than for the friendly 
Indians, prescribe to the latter the terms on which they 
shall make peace with their enemies; the blood of Mc[n- 
tosh, unwashed from their hands, the plundered property 
unrestored, the Agent unremoved ; the hostile party are to 
be received into the bond of communion and fellowship, 
with a forgiveness of sins, as if these natives of the wilder- 
ness, at once the noble and fallen of their species, should, 
in the darkness of heathenism, do more than the philosophy 
of the hep.then or the fortitude of the Christian ever did ; the 
money stipulated to be paid to them exclusively, and by 
the Commissioners of the United States, ordered to be paid, 
in part, to their enemies, and by the hands of other Agents 
than those appointed by the treaty. These wrongs, done to 
the friends of Mcintosh, are adverted to merely because 
they cannot be overlooked in the catalogue of wrongs done 
to Georgia, and to show that the friendty Indians may have 
suif'ered for indulging friendly sentiments towards Georgia, 
and Georgia, for indulging like sentiments towards the 
friendly Indians. The result of all which is, that, judging 
the motives and objects of human action by the results, the 
Agents of the United States, whether commissioned for 
that purpose, or not, must have been intent on vindicating 
the conduct of the Agent for Indian Affairs, and opening 
the way for the rupture of the treaty — for that conduct has 
been mndicated and approved by them, ;ind all the materi- 
als, as it is understood, collected for that rupture, whilst the 
Indians remaiji unreconciled either to one another, or to the 
treaty, and a large portion of them more embittered and 
exasperated against the authors of it than ever. 

The President having ultimately resolved to refer the 
treaty to Congress, for reconsideration, because of alleged 
intrigue and treachery practiced to obtain it, the resolution 
adopted by the Executive to prosecute the survey under the 
act of the Legislature, of the 9th day of June last, was 
changed, and the change immediately communicated to the 
President. 

It would be uncandid, fellow-citizens, to disguise that, 
but for the proposed reference to Congress, the survey 
would have been commenced and prosecuted. So long as 
the controversy was confined to the Executive of the Union 



408 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

and the Executive of Georgia, there could be no hesitation 
as to the measures which it became the latter to pursue. 
Between States equally independent, it is not required of 
the weaker to _yield to the stronger, because this would be 
settling controversies bj the rule of force, not by the rule 
of right ; and, between sovereigns, the weaker is equally 
qualitied as the stronger to pass upon its rights. Th.e 
immediate survey of the country, required certainly by the 
interest and convenience of Georgia, was not of that vital 
importance v/hich would justify offensive measures to ex- 
ecute it. But the abandonment of a right, not consid- 
ered doubtful by the only power competent to pronounce 
upon it, was another and very different matter. The con- 
cession of a right, without an equivalent, by a weaker to a 
stronger power, is never made without exposing the former 
to injurious imputation, and will always be followed by 
concession after concession to unjust demands, until noth- 
ing remains to be demanded on the one side, or conceded 
on the other. When, therefore, the President of the United 
States commanded the Governor of Georgia to forbear the 
survey, and when that command was followed by a distinct 
annunciation of the penalty which awaited the disobedi- 
ence to it, the Executive of Georgia would not merely 
have surrendered a right already declared to be so by the 
supreme pov/er of the State, but would have made a dis- 
honorable surrender to a stronger power, with the sword 
suspended over his head. Whilst, therefore, the Governor 
would, in this respect, have treated the mandate of the 
President as unlawful, he did not hesitate, as soon as the 
contemplated reference of the treaty to Congress, for 
alleged intrigue and treachery, was officially known to 
hini, to postpone the survey until the meeting of the Legis- 
lature ; not because that reference was lawful, but that, its 
legality or illegality was not so appropriately a question 
for his decision, as for that of the Legislature. So that, 
whilst the Govennnent of Georgia denied the power of the 
Executive authority of the United States to pronounce 
upon her rights, it might not refuse to the assembled States 
of the Union the opportunity of investigating certain claims, 
or discussing certain questions in controversy, connected 
with the treaty, or with her own character and conduct in 
relation to it. So far as that character and conduct were 
in any manner involved in the negotiation or conclusion of 
the treaty, or in the events which preceded and followed, 
their purity, uprightness and justice might freely bo can- 
vassed before the whole world. Thus much was conceded 



Chap. XI.] ANNUAL MESSAGE OF 1825. 409 

for our own sake, until tlie meeting of tlie Legislature ; the 
rights of the State .were saved by protestation, and the 
Legislature is yet free to act upon the subject, as^ if no 
measure had been taken by the Executive in relation to 
that reference. The legality of the survey was asserted, 
the power to invalidate the treaty denied, and the absolute 
title of Georgia to the soil and jurisdiction vindicated. 

The very limited knowledge of the history of the Creek 
tribes, possessed by the people of the United States, and 
the misconceptions and misrepresentations which could not 
lail to ensue, inducad the Executive to direct the attention 
of J. Y. Bevan, Esq., (already assiduously occupied under 
your appointment to collect the materials for a history of 
Georgia,) to the illustration of that part of the Creek story 
which had more immediate reference to the points involved 
in the discussion of the treaty. The result of his diligent 
research is submitted in the paper marked (A). You • will 
find there the ground assumed by the Executive of Georgia 
in maintenance of the treaty, viz : that the consent of 
Coweta was of itself sufiicient, independently of all_ other 
considerations, to give force and efficacy to that instru- 
ment, is fully sustained, and by evidence derived from 
such authentic sources, as to leave nothing to cavil or to 
subterfuge. 

In obedience to the will of the Legislature, expressed^ in 
their resolutions of the 11th day of June last, I proceeded 
to the appointment of Commissioners to carry the objects 
of them into effect. In selecting the members of this com- 
mission, I endeavored to have regard to the qualifications 
of uprightness, integrity and intelligence. It was believed 
that the selection would be approved by the moral and 
enlightened of our own community. Since^ however, the 
censorship of the United States Agents has passed them in 
review, the Executive is informed by those Agents that he 
was mistaken and deceived ; and, accordingly, you will see, 
in sundry documents accompanying this message, the char- 
acters of those Commissioners so portrayed that it would 
have been difficult to resist the belief that, by a strange 
fatality, they had been chosen from the least worthy and 
estimable of society, if the characters of the persons fill- 
ing the highest offices of the State, both Legislative and 
Executive, had not previously been subjected to the same 
scrutiny and shared the same fate. The report will inform 
you of the treatment they received, and of the obstacles 
thrown in their way at every step, by which all investi- 



410 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XL 

gation was renderecl. unavailino^. The principal Agent 
having been instructed by the r resident to advise vfith 
the Governor of Georgia upon the measures necessary to 
the successful j)rosecution of his mission, when the Gov- 
ernor of Georgia appointed Gommissioners to co-operate 
with hiin in the task of investigatiosn, as well as to guard the 
interests of Georgia, the act of appointment is pronounced 
a usurpation — the commissioners treated as private persons 
-—every obstruction o'|DpQsed to the procurement of testi- 
mony — -intercourse with the Indians denied them — the 
promises given of a separate examination of the Indians, 
violated — the word of an Indian Chief received as true 
againSit the testimony of the whole world — the Agent of 
Indian Aifairs declared innocent, if condemned by 23 
States of the 24 — and' Cherokee Chiefs, who had distin- 
guished themselves, in the councils of their own Nation, for 
hostility to the interests of Georgia, permitted to sit in the 
councils, to aid with their advice, and to dictate the talks 
of the Creeks, whilst the confrontation with their enemies, 
sought by the friendly Chiefs, was refused. 

In compliance with the requisitions of the same resolu- 
tions, I transmitted, without delay, a copy of the memorial 
addressed by the Legislature to the President, exposing the 
conduct of the Agent for Indian Affairs, and requesting 
his removal from otHce. The President, in this, as in every 
other case in which the authorities of Georgia have com- 
plained Qf the conduct of his Agents, has determined to 
refer the subject to the consideration of Congress ; a de- 
cision as unexpected as unsatisfactory. It is the transfer 
of a matter by the President, who alone has the absolute 
control over it, to the Congress which has no such control. 
The President has authority to dismiss, at pleasure, the 
offending officer, or, if a military one, to order a court for 
his trial, whilst the Congress of the United States has no 
such power. The utmost the Congress can do, in an 
extreme case, is to impeach the officer, if impeachable ; if 
not, repeal the law creating the office, and thus indirectly 
removing the incumbent, but without having any security 
that he would not immediately be appointed to another 
office, or restored to the same office if it should be re- 
established by law. 

Having submitted, in detail, a narrative of the events to 
which our relations with the United States have given rise, 
and exposed the motives and principles which have gov- 
erned the conduct of the Executive throughout, it is left 
to your wisdom to decide upon the measures necessary and 



Chap. XL] ANNUAL MESSAGE OF 1825. 411 

proper to sustain the liouor and defend the rights and in- 
dependence of the State. It is confidently believed that 
the Constitution, the public law, nor the usages of nations, 
will justify an abrogation of the treaty ; and it is recom- 
mended to you, therefore, iji any and every event, to 
consitler, as heretofore, the Indian claims to the territory as 
effectually extinguished by it, and that, whether the survey 
be suspended or not ; to order the occupation of it on the 
day stipulated in that instrument, in the same manner as 
you would have done if its validity had not been ques- 
tioned. 

In the correspondence submitted to the Legislature, at 
their late extraordinary session, will be found the repeated 
and final resolution of the Cherokees never to abandon 
the territory they occupy within our limits. This resolu- 
tion may be satisfactory to the Government of the United 
States; it cannot be so to you. Having taken felieirs, it 
remains for you to take yours, and, in doing so, no time is 
to be lost. Your better judgment will suggest and a^^prove 
the remedy. Whatever it may be, I recommend to you 
to adopt early and energetic measures for the removal of 
all white persons and others, not Indians, inhabiting that 
territory, with the exception only of such as are necessarily 
employed in the service of the United States, under the 
power granted to Congress to regulate commerce with the 
Indian tribes. By the second article of agreement and 
cession, you will find the following words inserted by our 
Commissioners out of abundant caution : The United 
States " cede to the State of Georgia whatever claim, right 
or title they may have to the jurisdiction or soil of those 
lands." Nothing remained to the Indians, therefore, but 
the right of temporary occupation for hunting. This 
right has been construed so liberally, that, in practice, a 
general usufructuary interest has been conceded to them. 
But this reservation of hunting grounds is confined to the 
Indians exclusively, and designed for their use and benefit 
only. The soil and jurisdiction being in Georgia, it was 
no more lawful for the United States to introduce other 
persons there, than it would have been for them to have 
introduced, within the settled limits of Georgia, a colony of 
free persons of color, of Indians, or of white people. The 
utmost allowable to the United States, in this respect, was 
the settlement, within the territory, of such of their own 
ofiicers as were necessarj^to carry into eftect their acknowl- 
edged power to regulate commerce with the Indians; The 
United States have, nevertheless, by permission, toleration, 



412 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

or encouragement, introduced there, from time to time, 
white persons, and others, who have made settlements, 
exercised ownership over the soil, and cultivated it in the 
same manner as if the United States, and not Georgia, 
possessed the right of soil and jurisdiction ; and these very 
same persons, as it is confidently believed, have been 
chiefly instrumental in preventing the Indians from leav- 
ing the country ; all such persons, therefore, are to be 
considered as trespassers and intruders upon the soil of 
Georgia, and treated accordingly. This is the theory and 
practice of the United States Government itself, v/ith 
regard to its own lands. In every instance where the 
United States have claimed the soil and jurisdiction, 
whether the Indians be in occupation or not, the Govern- 
ment has exercised the power to treat all such persons as 
trespassers and intruders ; and an act of Congress paithorizes 
the President to expel them at the point of the bayonet. 
It is equally competent to the Government of this State, to 
adopt like measures for the removal of trespassers on her 
own soil ; and, for this purpose, having made the necessary 
statutory provisions, it is recommended to you to extend 
the laws of Georgia over the country. 

You have seen how our rights of sovereignty, those of 
the elective franchise, of territory and jurisdiction, have 
been infringed ; you will see the same rights violated, in 
the independence, character and dignity of the constituted 
authorities occupied in the management of our affairs. 

A special ofhcer was commissioned by the President to 
inquire into the conduct of the Agent for Indian affairs, 
who, on presenting himself here, was received in the most 
friendly temper, and with assurance that every assistance 
would be rendered to promote the object of his mission ; 
not doubting that the object, as he repeatedly professed, 
was justice to all the parties concerned — to the public, to 
his own Government, to Georgia, to the Indians, and to the 
officer implicated. Any deportment which might be 
construed into a disposition to bias or mislead him, was 
studiously avoided ; all information required, promptly fur- 
nished ; and not a suspicion admitted that he could have 
been actuated by other than honorable motives, until, in a 
conversation which a gentleman in the confidence of the 
Governor was instructed to hold with him, he betrayed 
very strong prepossessions in favor of the Agent ; so much 
so, and at so early a period, that, with an intention to apprise 
his Government of the fact, a letter was addressed to him, 
marked (B), which, with his answer, marked (C), is sub- 



Chap. XI.] ANNUAL MESSAGE OF 1825. 413 

mitted. In the latter, you will find repeated professions of 
impartiality and disinterestedness ; but you will soon per- 
ceive, in his after conduct and writings, the hollowness and 
insincerity of thera. They, and the report of the State 
Commissioners, show that the Special Agent came here, 
not to inquire into the conduct of the Agent of Indian 
affairs, but, as counsel or attorney, to advise' with him, to 
lend him aid and countenance, to collect testimony for his 
vindication and acquittal, and, without giving ear to the 
testimony against him, to pronounce that acquittal as hon- 
orable for himself, and the prosecution as disgraceful to all 
the parties concerned in it ; seeking, for this purpose, with 
great labor and assiduity, the evidence of the outcasts of 
society, wherever he could find it, and thus embodying for 
himself and his Government, a volume of impurest matter, 
by Avhich to justify that acquittal. His patience would 
not permit him to wait the closing of the testimony on either 
side, as you will see in his letter of the 21st June, address- 
ed to the Agent and published by him. It was this letter, 
proving incontestabiy that the question had been prejudged 
at Washington, and that a farce had been playing only to 
amuse the authorities of Georgia, which decided the Ex- 
ecutive to address to him the note of the 28tli June, in- 
structing him to hold no further correspondence with this 
Government. The letter, of the 4th of July, was subse- 
quently addressed to this Department, in which, after justi- 
fying his offensive one of the 21st June, he insults the 
authorities of Georgia, l)y referring the prosecution of the 
Agent to the most corrupt and reprehensible of motives ; 
and, by the aftected charity with which he excepted the 
Chief Magistrate from the charge, gave poignancy to his 
denunciation, and to his sentence a semblance of a legal 
character, as if pronounced by a competent magistrate from 
the judgment seat. It was not until after the return of this 
oflicer to Washington, that he caused to be published, un- 
der the eye of his Government, the declaration " that he 
was informed by tlic acting Agent for Indian Afl^irs, that 
the Commissioners of Georgia had carried with them into 
the Nation a large amount of money, say four to six thous- 
and dollars," strongly insinuating, at the same time, that 
this money was carried there for the purposes of bribery 
and corruption. A charge against this branch of the Gov- 
ernment, connected with the administration of the finances, 
so serious, proceeding from such a person, and made in a 
form so specific, deserves your attention, and the more, be- 
cause the truth or falsehood of it can be easily established. 



414 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

Another Special Agent had been deputed to this Gov- 
ernment, in a civil and military capacity, to investigate the 
causes of the disturbances in the Indian country, to remove 
the causes of discontent, and to reconcile the contending 
parties. He likewise .was received with the most friendly 
dispositions, and treated with all the respect due to his rank 
and character. He professed to be animated by the love 
of truth and justice, to be in the interest of no party, and, 
in the execution of his trust, to be governed by the dictates 
of duty only. Not doubting the sincerity of these profes- 
sions, the aid and co-operation of the Executive of Georgia, 
in promoting the objects of his mission, were cheerfully 
tendered, and Avould undoubtedly have been afforded to 
any extent within the powers of the Department. The first 
manifestation given by this officer of dislike or aversion to 
the authorities of Georgia, which has come to the knowl- 
edge of the Executive, will be found in the representation 
of the Commissioners, and in tlie letter of the other Special 
Agent, in which, speaking of his obnoxious letter of the 
21st of June, he says, " the letter is approbated by a man 
who for wisdom stands inferior to few, and in honor to 
none." If the inference was correct, that the person allud- 
ed to by the writer was the same Agent whose conduct is 
the subject of this review, it is certain that even at the 
time he could not have entertained for the authorities of 
Georgia those respectful sentiments which he professed, and 
which in duty he was bound to entertain ; for, in that ob- 
noxious letter, those authorities were denounced for oppres- 
sion, partiality and injnstice of the most flagrant kind, 
practiced against the Indian Agent. On the 10th day of 
July, he wrote a letter to the Governor, enclosing a certifi- 
cate of the Indian Chief, Marshall, and a white man named 
Edwards, to disprove the fact of Mcintosh and his Council 
having given their assent to the survey. This ofiicer could 
not have oftered a greater insult to any independent Gov- 
ernment. He had seen the public message, in which the 
assent of Mcintosh and his Chiefs had been announced to 
the Legislature, and the incontestable evidence on which 
the annunciation was founded. Disregarding the authority 
of both, and professing to rely on the testimony of such 
persons as Marshall and Edwards, known to him to be infa- 
mous, he informs the Governor that no such assent was ever 
given. In aggravation of this insult, before any notice was 
taken of it, he causes the same letter, with the certificate, 
to be published on his own authority, alleging, as his ex- 
cuse, that falsehoods and calumnies, by whom or about 



I 



I 



CnAP. XL] ANNUAL MESSAGE OP 1825. 415 

what, he did not inform us, were propagated ; tlius making 
his appeal to the public from the pretended rumor of the 
day, for the purpose of bringing the authorities of Georgia 
into disrepute with their own people, and separating the 
people from their Government. He was soon informed that 
he himself was the dupe of the certificate of Marshall, 
and that his own conduct was reprehensible in relying on 
it to reproach the Government of Georgia with misrepre- 
sentation and falsehood ; and, of this his Government and 
the public were soon after furnished with abundant proof. 
When this oflicer is rebuked for an indignity which could, 
with no propriet}^, pass without censure, he loses all self- 
command, and, forgetting his own station and that of the 
person to whom he addresses himself, writes letter after 
letter to the Chief Magistrate, couched in the most offen- 
sive language, and which, from their manner as well as 
matter, and the immediate publicity given to them through 
the gazettes, must have been intended as electioneering 
papers, to subserve the cause of one of the contending 
parties in the State, to the prejudice of the other ; an in- 
ference deriving abundant confirmation from the fiict that 
the same officer was in the practice, in the 'common inter- 
course of society, of applying to the Chief Magistrate, 
and others in authority, the most contumelious and abusive 
epithets. 

As no further intercourse could be held with him, with- 
out compromitting the dignity of the State, it was, in the 
first instance, forbidden ; and when, afterwards, he had 
proceeded to the greatest extremity, his recall, arrest, trial 
and punishment were demanded of his Government. The 
Executive of the State would have been warranted by the 
public law and practice of nations, in a case so flagrant, to 
have ordered him to leave the territory of Georgia, and to 
have enforced that order. It was unwilling to resort to a 
measure of harshness or severity, however justifiable. The 
United States Government itself is not less tenacious of its 
own dignity than others. It has, at least on one occasion, 
interdicted intercourse with a foreign minister of first 
grade, representing a European power of first rank, for 
merely contradicting it abruptly ; and the equally merited 
treatment of another minister, representing a first-rate 
power, for appeals to the people from their Government, is 
well known to you. More recently, the gallant Porter has 
been punished by his Government, for insulting the petty 
authorities of Foxardo, and for making an appeal from that 
Government, through the public prints, much less excep- 



416 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TEOUP. [Chap. XI. 

tioiiable than that made by this officer in the publication 
of his letter of the 10th July. Whether the constituted 
authorities of Georgia are of more or less importance than 
those of Foxardo, in the view of the General Government, 
will be seen in the answer of the President. The answer of 
the President to the demand of the Governor of Georgia, 
foi- his recall and arrest, is as little creditable to the func- 
tionary from which it comes, as satisfactory to the one to 
whom it is addressed. 

The President is bound, by every constitutional obliga- 
tion, to execute the laws. One of these laws declares, that 
" any officer or soldier who shall use contemptuous or disre- 
spectful words against the Chief Magistrate or Legislature 
of any of the States, if a commissioned officer, shall be 
cashiered." The President acknowledges this officer to 
have used contemptuous and disrespectful words, for which 
his conduct is simply disapproved ; and he is informed that 
if the Governor of this State had not previously used to- 
ward him offensive language, the demand would have 
been complied with. So that, according to this construc- 
tion of the President, his military officers may conduct 
themselves as they please within the jurisdiction of the 
respective States, no matter how exceptionably ; and the 
least reprehension or censure by the Chief Magistrate of a 
State, is their sufficient warrant to retort in abusive and 
insulting language, and to gratify their resentments, even 
at the expense of the independence of the elective fran- 
chise : a construction which makes the law a nullity, 
because it privileges the military officer to do that which, 
but for the law, he might legally have done ; insult a Chief 
Magistrate of a State as he would insult a private citizen, 
for any real or imaginary grievance ; a privilege which the 
law was intended to prohibit to him. But the fact assumed 
by the President as true, is not true. Nothing offensive 
was written to this officer before he had three several 
times oftended the dignity of this Government, viz : by his 
approbation of the ofl'ensive terms of the letter of the 
other special agent, by his disrespectful treatment of the 
Commissioners, and by his procurement and publication of 
the false statement of Marshall and Edwards. This ex- 
position of the law by the Executive of the United States, 
will satisfy you of the expediency of depending on your 
own measures for defence against the repetition of such 
outrages. 

The Governor of Georgia denies the right of the Presi- 
dent to excuse or justify his officer in the violation of the 



Chap. XL] ANNUAL MESSAGE OP 1825. 4:17 

law of the United States, wliicli he is bound to execute, 
because of any act or supposed act of the Governor, which 
is in viohation of no law. The President, by such excuse 
or justification, takes the phxce of the Agent; and when, in 
one of his authorized communications, he says, " there is 
no part of his duty whicli tlie President more anxiously 
pursues than that of maintaining the most scrupulous 
decorum in his official intercourse with the State authori- 
ties, a line of conduct from which no circumstances, 
however aggravated, have or will tempt him to depart," he 
only means, that what he does not choose to do by himself 
he will do by his Agent. 

The published addresses of the different agents are sub- 
mitted with the rest, only to show the unity of feeling, 
sentiment and action, which has signalized the deportment 
of the United States officers of every grade, in their in- 
tercourse with the Government of Georgia. It can be 
submitted to no longer. The sovereignty, independence 
and dignity of the State must be maintained ; and to sup- 
port them you must depend on your own means. I advise 
you, therefore, to have recourse to those means : no matter 
whom you place in authority, all strangers must be com- 
pelled to respect, in their exterior demeanor at least, those 
authorities. The sacredness of the elective franchise can 
be protected by regarding every private person, not a 
citizen of Georgia, who interferes with that freedom, as an 
alien and stranger, violating a right of sovereignty, and 
exposing himself to punishment. If an officer of the United^ 
States, not being a citizen of Georgia, he renders himself 
the more obnoxious, from the double capacity in which 
he offends that sovereignty ; and if an officer representing 
his Government, in a diplomatic character, before this 
Government, he can be made amenable under the sanc- 
tions of your own laws, and the laws and usages of nations, 
for offences committed against either; and to this end you • 
have only to define the character of the ofience, and to 
prescribe the punishment. 

In the expose of the state of our relations with the 
General Government, other grievances, minor and second- 
ary in importance, are adverted to, not for the purpose of 
accumulating wrongs into a formidable mass, and making 
an appeal the louder and deeper to the justice of that Gov- 
ernment, but to satisfy our fellow-citizens, that, if we have 
complained in vain, we have not complained without cause, 
and that our cup of bitterness is almost fall. 



4:18 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

^These two paragraphs — one relating to claims of the 
State against the United States, for militia services against 
Indian hostilities — and the other relating to claims of cit- 
izens of Georgia against the Creek Nation, under the treat}^ 
of 1821, are omitted.] 

The Government of Georgia had reason to expect that 
the (Jnited States would not refuse their concurrence and 
co-operation in the running of the line between this State 
and the State of Alabama ; 1st, because they were proprie- 
tors of the soil on one side of it ; and, 2d, because Georgia 
was concerned that the presence and authority of the 
United States should be a security to the Indians that their 
rights should be respected — a security which would save to 
Georgia the expense of a military force in the prosecution 
of the work, as the Indians, in the absence of that security, 
might be excited by evil-disposed persons to interrupt its 
execution. The President, in the first instance, signified 
no objection to a co-operation, but the one founded on a 
mistake in fact, that Alabama had not given her assent. 
Subsequently, however, the co-operation was declined, it be- 
ing, as was said, a matter in which Georgia and Alabama 
were alone concerned, and with which the United States had 
nothing to do. More recently, as you are informed, the 
State has been absolutely forbidden, at her peril, to enter 
her territory for the purpose of running a line or making 
a survey of any description ; the sum of all which is, that 
the United States claim for themselves the power to enter 
upon their territory wherever the soil and jurisdiction are 
in them ; to settle there whom they please, and to expel 
whom they please, even at the point of the bayonet; but 
deny the same power to Georgia, where tlie soil and juris- 
diction are in her, and forbid her, under the pain of 
military chastisement, to run a line or make a survey there. 
•The late correspondence with the Governor of Alabama, 
will show that we may soon expect the concurrence of 
that State in our resolution to run the line ; and it is very 
desirable that no further obstacle should be suffered to pre- 
vent its execution. 

A request made to the Executive of the United States, 
under authority of a resolution of the Legislature, to co- 
operate with this State in running the dividing line between 
it and the Territory of Florida, was also refused, on the alle- 
gation that Congress had made no provision for such co- 
operation. 



Chap. XL] ANNUAL MESSAGE OF 1825. 419 

[The portion of the message, here omitted, relates en- 
tirely to Internal Improvement, and has been copied into 
the eighth chapter of this work. The next three para- 
graphs are also omitted : the first relates to the Banks, the 
second recommends a " revision of onr military system ; " 
and the third, the establishment of a " Court of Errors or 
Appeals," as " a remedy for evils no longer tolerable."] 

I transmit, as a matter of duty, two resolutions of the 
Legislatures of Connecticut and Illinois, received since the 
late extra session, recommending to the Congress, and to 
the States, the abolition of slavery. 

Nothing has transpired to change my sentiments on a 
subject, to which, more than once, it has been made my 
duty to call your attention. It is my settled conviction, and 
the more confirmed than ever, that neither the other States, 
nor the Congress, have any right to bring that subject into 
question before them, in any form, and that every attempt 
to do so by either, should be regarded in the same manner 
as an attempt to destroy your sovereignty, of which it is 
an essential part ; and that you will have no security for 
this property, against the eftbrts v/hich will be made, from 
time to time, to impair its value, and eventually destroy it, 
but in the equally settled conviction on the part of the as- 
sailants, that you v/ill defend it as you would defend your 
li ves. Independently of any precautionary measures which 
you may deem proper for the permanent safety of this 
property, every proposition which may be addressed to you 
on the subject, either by the State or the United States 
authorities, being unconstitutional on the face of it, as it 
cannot be received otherwise than ofii'ensively, and conse- 
quently ought not to be received at all, should be returned 
to the authorities from which it emanated. 

[These paragraphs, referring to various resolutions of the 
Legislature ; to " Institutions for the instruction of youth ;" 
to Franklin College, which was stated to be "in an onward 
course of prosperity ; " to County Academies, and the Poor 
School Fund, omitted.] 

In our lamented differences with the United States, 
the constituted authorities of Georgia have been ungener- 
ously reviled — sentiments and feelings have been adopted 
for them, to which their hearts and understandings are 
strangers. The charge of hostility to the Union is indig- 
nantly repelled — G-eorgia is not behind the foremost of her 



420 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

sisters in derotion to the Union — she is laboring at this 
moment to cement and j^erpetuate that Union, by bringing 
it back to the principles of the Constitntion. We mean a 
Union of definite signification — a Constitutional Union 
for all Constitntional objects — a Union for safety, for se- 
curity of life, liberty and property — a Union to enforce 
the powers of the General Government, as well as to pro- 
•tect and defend the rights and powers of the States — a 
Union which means something, and which we love and 
cherish as a blessing. But the Union which is construed to 
mean any thing or every thing — a Union for absorption and 
consolidation, which would prescribe no limits to the pow- 
ers of one Government, but the general welfare, and which 
would reduce the powers of all the rest to a shadow of 
sovereignty — which claims supremacy and exacts obe- 
dience — which construes the Constitution for itself, and 
issues its mandates to the States, backed by the purse 
and sword — which threatens to decide for us what is pro- 
perty and what is not property, and whether we shall hold 
any property of a certain kind, or not — which sends its 
ofiicers and agents to insult and defy the public function- 
aries of the States, as if they were subaltern in rank and 
consequence to themselves — such a Union is not the Union 
adopted by the States, and it is believed is not such a one 
as the States will support. The Chief Magistrate especi- 
ally disclaims any other motive as the governing one of his 
conduct, than the sincerest attachment to the Union, with- 
out tincture of prejudice against the persons who compose 
the councils of the United States ; but, on the contrary, 
with the strongest predispositions to give every aid and sup- 
port to those councils to promote the peace, interest and 
happiness of the country. 

It is asserted, without fear of contradiction, that since 
Georgia was a party to the Revolution, the Confederacy, 
or the Union, she has fulfilled with sincerity and fidelity 
all her obligations and engagements ; in peace and in war, 
under whatever administration, not merely answering with 
promptness to every requisition, but, according to her 
means, sustaining that Government with as much vigor and 
patriotism as any of her sisters — as little querulous as any 
of them — more complying than most of them, and never 
bringing into question the constitutionality of its ordinances 
or decrees, but when, from the honest impulses of her heart, 
and the strongest convictions of her judgment, she has 
believed them unconstitutional. If opposed to any partic- 
ular administration, it has been an opposition of frankness 



Chap. XL] ELECTIONS, &C. 421 

and firmness ; and if, with these characteristics, always 
honorable, she has at any time mixed a spice of indigna- 
tion, it may well have been pardoned by the head and 
members of a family who cannot themselves claim exemp- 
tion from the frailties of our nature, and who, when honor 
and principle were at stake, might have seen a color of 
virtue in a momentary departure from meekness, humility 
and patience. But Georgia can still contend, that, in re- 
spect to all questions of mere interest, to which her con- 
nection with the Union may have given rise, she has 
discovered as little of selfishness, as much of generosity, 
and of forgiveness, as could be expected from a sovereign 
and independent State, claiming rights of property of 
great value, demanded by the wants of her citizens, and 
indispensable to the complete organization of her social 
system. Georgia has not demanded justice of the Federal 
Government in her day of tribulation, of difficulty and of 
embarrassment, in war, or in the midst of divided councils, 
but at a moment when, with an ample treasury, at peace 
Vvdtli all nations, and prosperous beyond example, she had 
her option to do us justice, or, refusing it, to present a mil- 
itary chest and armed men. If the United States choose 
to rely on these, and Georgia, taking counsel of her fears, 
shall make an inglorious surrender of herriglits, what will 
remain of the fruit of her toil and blood and public virtue, 
but a consolidated Government, in which the sovereignty 
and independence of the States being merged, nothing is 
left her but the power of a municipal corporation to settle 
the strifes and contentions of individuals witliin the freedom 
of it ? 

By encroachment on the one side, and acquiescence on 
the other, every day brings us nearer to this result ; and if 
we cannot find safety in the first principles of the Constitu- 
tion, we can find it no where. 

Your fellow-citizen, 

G. M. Teoup. 

One of the first duties of the new Legislature was the 
election of Judges, an Attorney and Solicitors-General. 
This is said to have been the first application of party rule 
to the choice of judicial affairs. Judge Wayne, of the 
Eastern District, was the only member of the Troup party 
who was re-elected — having had no opposition. Early in 
the session, the Governor communicated to the Legislature 



422 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

" copies of an official document" just received, " by 
which," he remarked, " you will see that the two Cherokee 
Chiefs,"' who. on a late occasion, were admitted by the 
United States Agents to participate in the Councils at 
Broken Arrow, and dictate the talk there, have been de- 
nounced and punished by their own Government, for an 
unauthorized interference in the affairs of the Creeks." 

On the 21st of November, he also sent to the Legislature 
" certain testimony recently taken by the Commissioners on 
the part of the State, additional to that furnished at the 
opening of the session," &c., &c. — a part of which, in the 
form of affidavits, we have already inserted ; but we have 
not room for further extracts, or for the " exposition" of 
the United States Commissioners, Messrs. Campbell and 
Meriwether, " in relation to the late treaty concluded by 
them with the Creek Indians," which occupied two closely 
printed pages of the Georgia Journal. In the conclusion 
of the exposition, the Commissioners said : 

" Let the treaty, then, be estimated according to the cir- 
cumstances which attended its negotiation, or let it be tried 
by itself, and it seems to us that the most rigid observer 
would be at a loss to discover a competent reason for its 
revision. The circumstances were such as ordinarily at- 
tend such transactions, except the perfidious opposition 
which we encountered, and a treaty was never formed 
with Indians, half so beneficial to themselves as this. jSTo 
error, then, being detected in the treaty itself, or in the 
manner of its obtainment, we are to look, for the cause of 
the mischief, to the manner in which both have been 
misrepresented. Let tliose who have originated the mis- 
representations, and those also who have given them cur- 
rency, be arraigned before their own consciences and tlieir 
country, and we know that their trial will be more fearful 
than ours." 

As an act of justice to these gentlemen, (now both dead,) 
and as intrinsic to the subject of the treaty, we should be 
glad to publish the preamble and resolutions imanimously 



* John Ridge and David Vann, who wore deposed from the National Council of the 
Cherokees, for " having thought proper to associate themselves as Secretaries to the Creels 
delegation," without authority of tlie General Council.— Ed. 



Chap. XL] ACTION OF LEGISLATURE. 423 

adopted by the Legislature, and approved by tlie Gov- 
ernor on iJ-ith ]N^ovember. We make room for the resolu- 
tions : 

Resolved, unanimously, therefore, hy the Senate and 
House of Itepresentatwes of the State of Georgia, in 
General Assemhly met. That they feel deeply and grate- 
fully impressed with the important services of the honorable 
Duncan G. Campbell and James Meriwether, in obtaining 
the late cession of lands from the Creek ISTation of Indians, 
and that their confidence remains unimpaired in the honor, 
uprightness and integrity of those gentlemen. 

Besolved, further, That the General Assembly, repre- 
senting the feelings and wishes of the good citizens of this 
State, do not hesitate in saying that tliey conceive that the 
treaty contains in itself intrinsic evidence of its own fair- 
ness, in the liberal and extended provisions which it 
contains for the removal, preservation and perpetuity of 
the Creek jSTation : Such treaty, so beneficial to the United 
States, the State of Georgia, and the Indians themselves, 
having been negotiated under circumstances requiring the 
most devoted zeal, persevering industry and firmness, we 
pronounce upon the conduct of the Commissioners our 
most cordial approbation, and that a copy thereof be trans- 
mitted to each of said Commissioners, and also a copy to 
each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress. 

The Committee on the state of the Republic, in the 
Senate, made a report on the subject of Indian relations, 
which was passed in both Houses, and approved by the 
Governor, concluding with resolutions expressive of their 
full reliance " in the late treaty," &c., " that the title of 
the territory obtained by said treaty, within the limits of 
Georgia, is considered as an absolute, vested interest, 
and that nothing short of the whole territory thus 
acquired, will be satisfactory ; and that the right of entry, 
immediately upon the expiration of the time limited in the 
treaty, be insisted on, and accordingly carried into effect" ; 
also approbatory of the conduct of the Governor ; request- 
ing the removal of Col. Crowell ; and concluding with a 
protest against a reconsideration of the treaty, and express- 
ing the opinion, in regard to that treaty, that "if there 
is to be a revision, it is due to the interests and rights of 



424 . LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XI. 

the State that siie should be represented in the enth-e 
proceedings, as v/ell preparatory as final." 

During this session, the Legislature passed Acts for lay- 
ing out and organizing the counties of Thomas, Lowndes, 
Baker, Lee, Taliaferro and Butts ; atid an Act " to organize 
the territory lately acquired from the Creek Indians, lying 
hetiveen the Flint and Chattahoochee Eivers, and west of 
the Chattahoochee ■River.''' Four counties were thus laid 
out, and named, respectively, Muscogee, Tkoup, Cow^eta 
and Caekoll ; the first, it is said, " in honor of Mcintosh, 
and to perpetuate the memory of the Creek people." 

The Legislature adjourned, without day, on 22d Decem- 
ber, after enacting various other laws, which we cannot 
particularly notice. 



Chap. XII.] NEW TREATY WITH THE CREEKS. 425 



CHAPTER XII. 

N'ew Treaty concluded, at Washington, loitk the Creek Indians. — 
Difficulties, Debates and Correspondence groxcing 07it of it. — 
3Iore trouble tcith the Cherohees. — Position and firmness of 
Gov. Troup and the Georgia Delegation. — Gov. Trouj) pro- 
nounces a exdogium on Jefferson and Adams. — Dinner at Indian 
Springs. — Survej/ of lands ceded by old Treaty. — Threatened 
interruption of the Sttrveyors. — Boundary between Georgia and 
Alabama. — Meeting of the Legislature. — Governor's Message. 
— Legislative action. — Events of 1827. — Threatening posture of 
Indian question. — Settlement of it, &c., &c. 

Whilst men of all parties in Georgia were uniting to 
give eifect to the treaty of the Indian Springs, nnder which 
it was fondly expected Georgia was to come, within less 
than a year, into possession of the Creek Country, by the 
actual use and occupation of this valuable portion of terri- 
tory within her acknowledged limits, controversy, of a 
most serious nature, and threatening discord and strife, un- 
expectedly arose. Congress had assembled on the first 
Monday of December, 1825 ; and the reports of General 
Gaines and Major Andrews, and the opposition of the hos- 
tile Indians, backed by the interference of others, had not 
failed to produce their effect on the mind of Mr. Adams. 
In his opening and first annual message, the President, after 
referring to the treaty of Indian Springs as having been 
" received at the seat of Government only a few days be- 
fore the close of the last session of Congress and of the late 
administration," added: 

"The advice and consent of the Senate was given to it, on 
the 3d of March, too late for it to receive the ratification of 
the then President of the United States ; it was ratified on 
the 7th of March, under the unsuspecting impression that 
it had been negotiated in good faith, and in the confidence 
inspired by the recommendation of the Senate. The sub- 
sequent transactions in relation to this treaty, will form the 
subject of a separate message." 
54 



426 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

The " unsuspecting impression" of the President can be 
accounted for only on the idea, that, having just come into 
office, he was not aware of the existence of Col. Crowell's 
letter of 13th February, 1825, on file in the War Depart- 
ment; or that no faith was given to its statements; or that 
the statements, even if regarded as true, were not deemed 
sufficient to shake the President's "impression." Be these 
conjectures right or wrong, it is certain that on 24th January, 
1826, the Secretary of War, by authority of the President, 
concluded a 7ievj treaty with certain persons styled the 
" Chiefs and Head-men of the Creek I^fation of Indians," 
at Washington City, and that the President sent it in to the 
Senate on the 31st of the same month. The Chiefs, who 
signed, were thirteen in number, and the treaty was wit- 
nessed by (amongst others,) John Crowell, Agent for Indian 
Affairs. On communicating this treaty to the Senate, the 
President stated that the old treaty had been ratified by 
him under the firm belief '• that it had been concluded with 
a large majority of the Chiefs of the Creek Nation, and 
with a reasonable prospect of immediate acquiescence by 
the remainder," &c., &c. He proceeded to state that this 
expectation had not merely been disappointed, but that 
troubles had ensued, resulting in the death of " the two 
principal Chiefs who had signed it," and that the " families 
and dependents" of these Chiefs, whilst in their " fugitive 
condition," &c., had " been found advancing pretensions 
to receive, exclusively to themselves, the whole of the 
sums stipulated," &c., " in payment for all the lands of 
the Creek Nation which were ceded by the terms of the 
treaty," &c., &c. 

After referring to the anxious desire of the United States 
to carry into effect the treaty of Indian Springs, until that 
was found impracticable, &c,, and the hope that the assent 
of the Indians would, at least, " have been given to a treaty, 
by which all their lands within the State of Georgia should 
have been ceded," and that this also had proved impracti- 
cable, the " excepted portion" being " of comparatively 
small amount and importance," he stated that he had 



CHiP. XII.] PRESIDENT'S VIEWS. 427 

assented to this exception, and placed it before tlie Senate, 
" only from a conviction, that, between it and a resort to 
the forcible expulsion of the Creeks from their habitations," 
&c., " there was no middle term."' After stating that 
the " deputation" with which the new treaty had been 
concluded, consisted " of the j)rincipal Chiefs of the ISTation, 
able not only to negotiate, but to carry into effect the stip- 
ulations to which they have agreed," and referring to 
another deputation, then also at Washington, which he 
characterized as " from the small party which undertook 
to contract for the whole Nation," &c., "but the members 
of which, according to the information collected by Gen. 
Gaines," did " not exceed four hundred," &c., he added : 

" In referring to the impressions under which I ratified 
the treaty of the 12th of February last, I do not deem it 
necessary to decide upon the propriety of the manner in 
which it was negotiated. Deeply regretting the crimina- 
tions and recriminations to which these events have given 
rise, I believe the public interest will best be consulted by 
discarding them altogether from the discussion of the sub- 
ject. The great hgdy of the Creek ISTation inflexibly refuse 
to acknowledge orto execute that treaty. Upon this 
ground, it will be set aside, should the Senate advise and 
consent to the ratification of that now communicated, with- 
out looking back to the means by which the other was 
effected. And, in the adjustment of the terms of the pres- 
ent treaty, I have been peculiarly anxious to dispense a 
measure of great liberality to both parties of the Creek 
Nation, rather than to extort from them a bargain, of 
which the advantages on our part could only be purchased 
by hardship on theirs." 

Accompanying this message, was a letter from the Secre- 
tary of War to the President, giving an account of the 
negotiation for the treaty, &c. 

The principal differences* between the two treaties, were : 

1st. By the new treaty, there was, with a small exception, 
no cession of any land west of the middle of the Chatta- 
hoochee — making, as was supposed, a difference to Georgia 
of about 1,000,000 acres of land, besides involving the ques- 

• For the precise differences, the reader is referred to the treaties in the 7th vol. of United 
States Statutes at Large, the Governor's Annual Message of 1826, &c.— jEd. 



428 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap, XII. 

tion of jurisdiction, between Georgia and Alabama, of the 
western half of that river within the Creek limits. 

2d. The new treaty fixed the time of removal of the 
Creeks at two years, instead of 1st September, 1826, as 
fixed by the old treaty : although possession was to be yield- 
ed on or before 1st January, 1827. 

A supplementary article was added to the treaty, on 
31st March, not important to be noticed here."-' 

As the matter of this treaty was an Executive, and there- 
fore a secret, proceeding, until the ratification in April, 
nothing ofiicial was known when Governor Troup addressed 
the following letter to the President : 

ESEODTIVE DePAETMENT, ] 

Jfilledgeville, 11th Fehruary^ 1826. f 
Sir : As I will proceed, on the second day of September 
next, under the authority of the Legislature of Georgia, to 
occupy the country ceded by the treaty concluded at the 
Indian Springs, on the twelfth day of February, 1825 ; and 
as the running of the dividing line between this State and 
the State of Alabama must necessarily precede the survey 
which will immediately follow that i><?cupation ; as the 
Government of the United States, having been formally 
invited to co-operate, has, in declining it ofiicially, made 
known to the Government of Georgia, that the running of 
the line is a matter in which Georgia and Alabama are 
alone concerned, and with which tlie United States have 
nothing to do ; as Alabama did consent, and, it is believed, 
notified that consent to the United States, as she certainly 
did to Georgia ; as Alabama is well disposed to co-operate 
with Georgia in the execution of the work ; as it can have 
no assignable connection with the existence or non-existence 
of the treaty, it having been fixed unalterably by the Con- 
stitution and the Articles of Agreement, as the permanent 
boundary ; and as the treaty recognizes and confirms it ; 
as the Government of Georgia is resolved, after having en- 
countered very many obstacles, equally unlooked for and 
unnecessary, to carry into efiect its repeated decree ; as the 

* It was, evidently, in reference to the critical situation of Indian Affairs, that Gov. 
Troup, on 28th January, 1826, issued two military orders— one for enrolling and classifying 
the militia, and the other for their review and inspection. In this latter order, he said : 
"It is impossible that the General officers should be indifferent to the crisis in which tho 
country finds itself; and, from his personal knowledge of them, the Commander-in-Chief 
would feel ashamed to address himself to their patriotism and military pride." — Ed. 



Chap. XII.] LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT, 439 

season will soon arrive most favorable to its execution with 
accuracy and precision ; and, as General Gaines, in his 
letter of the 14th June last, had, in the name of his Gov- 
ernment, expressly forbid the running of the line, as well 
as the survey of the lands, and had assembled troops* on 
the frontier, to enforce the prohibition ; and, as the Secre- 
tary of War, by the order of the President, notified the 
Government, that no entry upon, or survey of, the country 
would be permitted ; and, moreover, directed the Com- 
manding General to employ a military force to prevent 
any such entry or survey ; it is respectfully asked of the 
President, whether his resolution in these respects remains 
unchanged, and, if unchanged, whether the military force 
will be employed against us, with or without the auxiliary aid 
and co-operation of the savages, or whether these last will 
be restrained by the authority of the United States from 
interposing their arms at all ; or whether they will be left to 
the indulgence of their natural feelings, under the artificial 
excitements of the day, to assume the character of neutrals, 
or of partisans and marauders, as those feelings and ex- 
citements may dictate 'i It is hoped and expected that the 
frankness of the President's answer will correspond with 
the importance of the occasion which prompts to this 
inquiry, so that nothing hereafter will be chargeable to the 
imperfection of our language, or the insincerity of either 
of the parties. And that the President may bo in full 
possession of the considerations which influence this Gov- 
ernment, and, more especially, that he may acquit the 
authorities here of precipitancy, prejudice, or undue 
difiidence in the wisdom and patriotism of the councils 
of the Union, I will take the liberty to submit the docu- 
mentary and oflicial evidence, which, it is trusted, will 
sustain and justify this Government in the eyes of the 
world, in the measures to which, for its own safety, it 
may be obliged to have recourse. 

First — then, the running of the dividing line between 
Alabama and this State, has no assignable connection with 
the existence or non-existence of the treaty ; the right to 
run the line having accrued to Georgia, by the articles of 
agreement and cession, of 1802 ; a right undisputed until 
now, and which ought to be indisputable now, because at 
that time made by the Constitution the permanent bound- 
ary of the State. 

* Gen. Gaiues is believed to have liad one thousand regulars in the Indian country, 
at the time to which the Governor refers. — Ed. 



430 LIFE OF GEOEGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

The Constitution, in the 23rd section of the 1st article, 
after defining the boundaries of the State, proceeds to au- 
thorize a sale to the United States, under the authority of 
the Legislature ; but, that sale being effected, (as it was by 
the articles of agreement and cession, of 1802,) the remain- 
ing territory is declared to be the property of the whole 
body of tlie people, and inalienable but by themselves. 

Secondly^ — the repeatedly official assertion of the right 
of Georgia ; the official concurrence of Alabama; and the 
official acquiescence of the Government of the United 
States. 

Thirdly. The public acts and resolutions of Georgia, 
have kept separate and distinct the subject of running the 
line, and that of surveying the lands, any further than that 
the one must necessarily precede the other. But, with 
respect to the right to run the line at pleasure, never hav- 
ing entertained but one opinion concerning it, and disclaim- 
ing any authority on the part of the United States to 
bring it into controversy at all, whilst, in deference to the 
Councils of the Union, the Legislature consented to post- 
pone the survey, they did not consent to postpone the 
running of the line, and of course left it where they found 
it, viz, : discretionary with the Executive to run it when- 
ever he might deem proper. When the Legislature au- 
thorized the Executive to postpone the survey until the 
expiration of the time limited by the treaty, but to pro- 
ceed in it immediately at the expiration of that time, they 
could not have intended to postpone the running of the 
line, because, as that must necessarily precede the survey, 
sucli postponement would defeat the survey. 

Fourthly. The Legislature were therefore indifferent 
whether the treaty was declared null and void, or not, as 
regarded the running of the line ; the running having been 
ordered long before the treaty was even in contemplation, 
had nothing to do with it, and therefore was to be carried 
into execution, whether such a treaty was ever brought into 
existence or not. If the treaty expedites the running now, 
it is only because the running must necessarily precede the 
survey, which will commence on the 2d day of September 
next, the day after the time limited by the treaty for the 
occupation of the Indians. 

Fifthly. We are prohibited, by military force, from 
running the same description of boundary line which we 
are almost daily in the practice of running, without murmur 
or complaint from the General Government. I mean the 
exterior boundary line which separates our frontier counties 



Chap. XII.] LETTER CONTINUED. 431 

from the Indians. Here the Indians are equally liable to 
trespass, encroachment, and interruption of all kinds, from 
the whites ; to be cheated and defrauded of their effects, 
ill treated in their persons, and even their lands taken from 
them by the unskilfulness or dishonesty of surveyors. It 
has been shown, that, in the contemplated measure, the 
Government of the United States has been repeatedly in- 
vited to participate, not only to protect its own interests, 
but those of the Indians ; the Indians themselves would 
have been invited. In running the line between the Chero- 
kees and Georgia, under the treaty, both the United States 
and the Cherokees would be invited to be present. If the 
Indians, therefore, should, in either instance, suffer detri- 
ment by an act of the Government of Georgia, the Govern- 
ment of the United States would be there present to correct 
or redress it. 

Sixthly. Other States have run lines, separating their 
territory from that of the Indians, without permission of 
the General Government ; the States of Tennessee and 
North Carolina and Georgia have done so, and their legal- 
ity has not been questione'd by that Government. In many 
instances, too, these lines have passed through territory in 
the exclusive occupation of the Indians. (See tlie Reports 
of the Commissioners of the State, one dated 15tli October, 
1819, the other dated 13th July, 1818, running the lines 
between Tennessee and North Carolina and Georgia.) 

Seventhly. The Executive of the United States has re- 
peatedly, uniformly, and without reservation or condition, 
admitted the right of Georgia both to run the line and 
make the survey at the expiration of the time limited by the 
treaty ; and, in the letter of the Secretary of War, so late 
as the 30th day of August last, viz : after tha Government 
had been placed in possession of all the information which 
it now has, of the bribery and corruption and abuse of in- 
structions, practiced to procure it, the Executive of the 
United States expressed itself highly gratified and delighted 
that the Executive of Georgia had consented to postpone^ 
the survey, even until the meeting of the Legislature of 
the State. It will be seen, on comparing the correspond- 
ence and official message of the Governor with the para- 
graph of the letter of the Secretary of War, (marked E) 
that the Secretary has committed a very great error. So 
far from the Governor consenting to await the_ decision of 
the Congress, he protested, in' the most positive terms, 
against a reference of the treaty at all. The Governor 



432 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XU. 

never engaged to do more than to postpone the survey un- 
til the meeting of the Legislature of the State. 

You have perceived, Sir, from every past indication of 
public sentiment, that nothing can shake the confidence of 
the Government and tlie people of Georgia in the validity 
of the treaty of the Indian Springs ; and, as I flatter myself 
with the hope that the preceding illustration may atibrd 
some insight into the absolute right of the State of Geor- 
gia to run the dividing line between Georgia and Alabama, 
whensoever she pleases, I have taken the liberty to trouble 
you thus far. 

It is my unpleasant duty to trespass upon your attention 
yet a little longer. Information, not wholly of official 
character, has been received, that, in the new treaty lately 
negotiated with the hostile Chiefs, a line has been desig- 
nated as a true dividing line between the two tribes, by 
which something like 300,000 acres of land, as acquired 
by the treaty of the Indian Springs, are taken from us and 
given to the Cherokees. For this treaty, of course, we 
care nothing; because, in declaring the inviolability of the 
old, we have already proclaimed the invalidity of the new. 
But neither yourself nor myself can be altogether indiffer- 
ent to the consequences of this ill-judged measure. A false 
line has been adopted, which favors the Cherokees ; the 
true one, which favors the Georgians, blotted out. The 
true line will be the one followed by the Commissioners of 
Georgia, who are appointed to run it. The false line will 
be the one claimed by the Cherokees as the true one. I 
much fear you have not been made familiar with the terri- 
torial history of both tribes ; it is short, but not, on that 
account, the more appropriate to the subject of this letter. 
But I cannot help saying to you, that, of all the measures 
whicli you have thought proper to adopt in relation to the 
matters in controversy between the two Governments, 
there is no one which lias given me more pain or solicitude, 
because, no one partaking of more injustice, hardship, 
and oppression, than that now complained of. In giving a 
new boundary to the Cherokees, you have given them new 
feelings, hostile to the interests and people of Georgia ; 
they will recognize no other line, in future, than that you 
have thought proper to prescribe ; they will suffer none 
other to be run, but by coercion of the sword. Without 
any controversy between the Creeks and Cherokees, in- 
volving territorial boundary, or bringing this line into 
question, but such as might easily, according to their 
usages and customs, have been settled among themselves, 



Chap. XII.] LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT. 433 

you have become, gratuitously, a volunteer in tlie service of 
the Cherokees, to procure for them, by cession, from the 
hostile Chiefs, lands which belonged neither to them nor to 
the Cherokees, but which belonged more particularly to the 
friendly Creeks, and which now belong to us, by cession 
from both friendly and hostile Chiefs ; thus giving to the 
Cherokees a little more space for the pursuits of agricul- 
ture and the civilized arts, by a permanent location assured 
to them, adverse to the claims and demands of Georgia, 
and preparing them for the promised admission into the 
Union as an "independent State. iSTot only so ; you will 
probably have caused, on all these accounts, an expenditure 
of blood and treasure to the State of Georgia, from which 
she would have been otherwise exempt. And suffer me, 
in no unkindly spirit, to inquire, if such be the consequen- 
ces resulting from these, what will be those which must 
follow the ulterior and not distant assertion, by Georgia, 
of her right to all the territory of the Cherokees within 
the limits settled by the articles of agreement and cession. 

One of two things has happened : either the people of 
Georgia, and the authorities who represent them, have, by 
the illusions of interest or prejudice, or both, been over- 
whelmed by sudden and impenetrable darkness, benumb- 
ing and stupifying their faculties ; or the councils of those 
of whose measures they complain, have been directed by a 
strange infatuation. 

The old treaty is proposed to be annulled, either because 
of corruption practiced to procure it ; of an abuse of 
powers by the Commissioners ; of an inadequate represen- 
tation of the nation ; or of the boundary on one side being 
an artificial, instead of a natural, boundary. If an irre- 
versible sentence of denunciation and annulment is to be 
pronounced against the old treaty, because of these, what is 
to become of the new ? The old treaty, negotiated by your 
own agents, in the woods, seven hundred miles from the 
seat of government, with nothing but their written in- 
structions to direct them, in a simple, unostentatious man- 
ner, without any display of power, not even a guard or 
an escort, and with a comparatively limited command of 
money, with a fore-knowledge of their accountability to 
you, both for the fulfilment of their instructions and the 
appropriation of the money, and, finally, the formal rati- 
fication, agreeably to the forms enjoined by the Constitu- 
tion. 

The new treaty, negotiated at Washington, in the pres- 
55 



434 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROLT. [Chap. XII. 

ence of tlie Government, with enough of pomp and circnm- 
stance to dazzle or over-awe ; where a smile gives animation 
and buoyancy to despair ; and where the lion-hearted savage 
himself can 1)6 made to quake and cower beneath a frown ; 
where moneyed means lead into temptation, and the annals 
of Indian diplomacy furnish no moral nomenclature by 
which to estimate the terms, perfidious, treacherous, &c. ; 
where instructions could be varied, from hour to hour, to 
every exigency ; v/here, indeed, any party might be con- 
sidered as the Nation, and any boundary a good one : it 
is under all these circumstances that, at Washington, we are 
to presume the existence of perfect freedom of will, un- 
controlled and unconstrained, united to the romantic love 
of country, dictating every article and paragraph of the 
new treaty ; whilst, in the woods of Georgia, the same 
freedom lias been corrupted by gold, and the will misdi- 
rected to the ruin of Indian rights and interests. 

"We cannot look upon these things with the same eyes ; 
but, when the effects and consequences come, however they 
may be regarded by others, I can assure you they will in- 
flict a deep wound upon ourselves. The augmented expense, 
and the almost inevitable bloodshed, in running both the 
Alabama and Cherokee lines, to say nothing of the multi- 
plied obstacles opposed to the Executive of Georgia, in the 
execution of his duties, by these unfortunate events, com- 
bine to make this a long, complaining, and, perhaps, impor- 
tunate letter. 

Ihe same public duty which impels me to write, will 
incline you to a patient reading. We are never better 
employed than in hearing the griefs and lamentations of our 
friends, unless, in the kindliest of all oflices, that of assuag- 
ing and comforting them. 

With the highest consideration, 

I am your obedient servant, 

G. M. Tkoup. 
The President of the United States. 

Accompanying this letter, as exhibits, were several doc- 
uments ; but their insertion here would be of no special 
importance. 

The new treaty was ratified on the 22d April, 1826.'-^ 

* On advising and consenting to it, in the Senate, the following was the vote : Yeas — 
Messrs. Barton, Bell, Benton, Bouligny, Branch, Chambers, Chandler, Chase, Clayton, Dickcrsou, 
Eaton, Kdwards, Findlay, Hai-per, llafrison, Hendricks, Johnson, of Ky., Kane, Lloyd, Marks, 
Mills, Noble, Randolph, Reed, Rowan, Seymour, Smith, Thomas, Tazewell, Willey— 30. 
Nay&— Messrs. Bbrrien, Cobb, Ifayne, King, Macon, White, Williams— 7— Ed. 



Chap. XII.] SUBJECT OF NEW TREATY. 435 

As early as 24:th December, 1825, the Secretary of War 
had addressed a letter to the Georgia Delegation,* in Con- 
gress, stating that, " with the strongest desire to relieve the 
controversy with the Creeks, so far as Georgia was partic- 
ularly concerned," &c., the Executive had been " negotiat- 
ing, for some time past, on the basis of a surrender of all 
their lands within the limits of Georgia," &c. — that " the 
prospect of success was, for a time, flattering," but " recent 
events" had " entirely dissipated it, as to the whole of their 
lands in Georgia ; " that they were, however, " willing to 
make a cession to the east of the Chattahoochee, insisting 
on the necessity of a natural boundary as a protection 
against those trespasses which they suffer when separated 
only from the white population by an artificial line,"&c. — 
that the Indians having " encumbered this proposition with 
some conditions which" were "exceptionable," &c., the 
President had " refused to accept any proposition short of an 
entire cession within the limits of Georgia," &c.; that, " to 
a communication signifying this determination on the part 
of the Executive," the Indian Delegation had returned a 
" reply," which the Secretary of War submitted to the 
Georgia Delegation, stating that Georgia's " wishes on the 
question which the Executive finds itself obliged to decide, 
would have a great influence on its decision," &c., &c. 

The substance of the " reply" of the Indians, may be 
condensed in the following paragraph : 

" Our Nation respectfully demands the repeal of the treaty 
of the Indian Springs in February last. In doing this, sut- 
flcient reasons are assigned, and none stronger to be found 
on earth, than the fact that our Nation, in its legal capacity, 
was not a party to the treaty, and that they have refused to 
ratify a bargain calculated to annihilate the happiness of 
our people." 

In replying to the Secretary, on 7th January, 1826, the 
Georgia Delegation stated that their answer had been de- 
layed, by the absence from Washington of some of their 

* Then consisting of Messrs. Berrien and Cobb, in the Senate, and Messrs. Gary, A. Cuth- 
bert, Forsyth, Haynea, Meriwether, (one of the Commissioners who had negotiated the treaty 
at Indian Springs, of 12th Feb,, 1825,) Tattnall and Thompson, in the House.— Ed. 



^36 I^IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

number, and "not that any difference of opinion among 
them would be anticipated,'' &c. — that they had learned 
with pleasure the anxiety of the President " to relieve 
the controversy with the Creeks from all difficulty," &c. — 
that whilst they had " no express instructions on the sub- 
ject," and " did not feel authorized to determine what were 
the wishes of the State ;" yet, in regard to the question 
"whether it is most advisable to refer the treaty, with the 
objections to its validity, to Congress, for their decision, or, 
accepting a new basis of the Chattahoochee as a boundary," 
&c., " to resume a negotiation, with a hope that certain 
exceptionable conditions coupled with it," &c., " may be 
satisfactorily modified," &c., they expressed the opinion 
that " neither branch of the alternative" proposed ." would 
meet the wishes of the State of Georgia," &c. They 
said: 

"The State, we believe, does not and cannot suppose that 
Congress will entertain a question con'cerning the original 
validity of a treaty ratified and promulgated by the proper 
departments, with all the solemnities required by the Consti- 
tution; to which no objections are now m-ged which Avere 
not distinctly presented to the President, prior to its sub- 
mission to the Senate, and b}^ him as distinctly brought to 
the view of that body, when asking their advice and con- 
sent," &c. 

Adding a suggestion, that the " evidence" on which the 
treaty was assailed, had been " obtained by means totally 
adverse to and inconsistent with the just views of the 
President of the United States, because adverse to and in- 
consistent with the ascertainment of truth," they concluded : 

" They know and they feel that the Indian Agent, profit- 
ing by the excitement of feeling into which tlie Special 
Agent of the Government had imhappily fallen, has unduly 
exerted the influence of his station, to obtain from persons, 
for the most part subject to his control, a statement of cir- 
cumstances which have no foundation in fact, and, from 
those untutored savages who were committed to his protec- 
tion, an expression of feelings which the great body of the 
Nation do not entertain. They know and they feel that to 
lift the veil from this transaction, to expose its real charac- 



Chap. XII.] OPPOSITION TO NEW TREATY. 437 

ter to the President of the United States, it is only neces- 
sary that that influence shoiikl be withdrawn. They still 
hope that the earnest wishes of a faithful member of the 
American Confederacy, will not be urged, in vain, before the 
Chief Executive Magistrate ; and, with this knowledge, 
this feeling and this hope, they cannot permit themselves 
to believe "that the President will ultimately adopt either 
branch of the alternative which you propose. On the con- 
trary, they rely, that, with a just respect to the rights of the^ 
State, and a paternal regard to the wishes and feelings of 
her people, he will, by the recall of this ofiicer, remove 
the whole source of this unhappy controversy, _ eive to 
Georgia peace throughout her borders, and tranquillity and 
happiness to the children of the forest." 

With what efl^ect these appeals were urged, has been 
seen. It is with deep regret we find our limits will not 
permit us to record here the efforts of Messrs. Berrien and 
Cobb, on the floor of the Senate, to prevent the ratification 
of the new treaty. Before he had learned of the action of 
the Georgia Delegation, as above detailed, Governor Troup 
wrote to them the following letter: 

Executive Department, ] 

MiUedgeville^^th January, 1826. \ 
Gentlemen : I am supported on a sick bed, only to 
express my confident expectation that you will not enter- 
tain, for a moment, the proposition submitted by the United 
States, on the part of the hostile Indians, that proposition 
being inconsistent with the treaty of the Indian Springs, 
which is to be considered inviolable, and tlie more so, as 
the Legislature of this State has again explicitly recognized 
that inviolability, and directed the Executive, as hereto- 
fore, to carry the treaty into full eftect, according to its 
stipulations. The treaty being the supreme law, and the 
Articles of agreement and cession having established the per- 
manent boundary, in conformity with the 23d section of the 
first Article of the Constitution, no human authority exists 
to change or alter one tittle of it, save the whole people 
in convention assembled. I even regret that you should 
have considered it of any importance to make the con- 
cession that Georgia might have been satisfied by a further 
partial extinguishment of territory, as it had been my 
settled purpose, from the beginning, so far as depended on 



438 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

me, never to receive from the United States one square foot 
less than the entire country within the limits of Georgia. 
You now see that if Georgia had received less, she never 
would have received more ; nevertheless, I know you to 
have been governed by the most pure and patriotic mo- 
tives throughout. 

With great consideration and respect, 

G. M. Tkoup. 

Again, on 7th February, he wrote the Delegation, that, 
from a suggestion contained in a letter received by him 
from Washington, he was apprehensive that a sentence in 
the foregoing letter had been misconstrued ; that, " in 
speaking of a concession made by the Delegation, noth- 
ing more was meant than the concession, which, in answer 
to the Secretary of War," the Delegation "thought it of 
sufficient importance to make, viz : that Georgia might 
have been satisfied, for the time, with an extinguishmeut 
of Indian claims *to a less amount than that embraced 
within the limits prescribed by the Articles of Agreement 
and Cession ; a most innocent concession, indeed," said he, 
" because you could not know that the Legislature would 
or would not accept such a treaty," &c. Referring to his 
" entire correspondence with the General Government," 
from his first letter to Mr. Calhoun, then Secretary of 
War, he said the Delegation would see that he had " con- 
sidered the surrender of the whole as a sine qua non^'' &c. 
After speaking of " the hostile Indians dictating the 
permanent boundary of the State, to suit their convenience, 
and the Executive Government of the Union deigning gra- 
ciously to receive that dictation," &c., he added : 

"Not one word was written, or intended to be written, 
about your having made a concession of a right of any kind ; 
a concession which the writer knew it would be as difficult to 
extract from you, as from your friend and humble servant." 

Meanwhile, the Governor's health was suffering irom 
the cares of office and too close confinement to business. 
The following extract from a private letter, is not without 
interest : 



Chap. XII.] SENATORS BERRIEN AND COBB. 439 

MiLLEDGEviLLE, 20tli Feb., 1826. 
Mj Dear Sir : * "''^ •• ■'■ "'^ * •• 

If I could spend a fortniglit with you, my health and 
spirits wonld be restored. As it is, I am oppressed to death 
with business whicii it is impossible for me to turn my back 
on, and whicli is accumulating faster than I progress 
in physical ability to labor through it ; so that, at bed- 
time, nature is not only wearied, but entirely exhausted. 
Hence, the snail-pace imj^rovement of a condition of body, 
which, under more favorable circumstances, would have 
been comparatively vigorous and healthful, weeks ago. 
God knows what is to be the end of it ; for I dread a re- 
lapse more than death : yet, the business must go on. 

Very sincerely and affectionately, 
Dr. Daniel] . * ' G. M. Teottp. 

[1826.] On the 22d of April, Messrs. Berrien and Cobb 
wrote separate letters to the Governor, announcing the 
decision of the Senate on the new treaty, and their unsuccess. 
ful efforts so to modify its provisions, as to render them less 
objectionable to Georgia, and to do justice to the Mcintosh 
Indians, &c., &c. The limits of this work do not permit 
the publication of these letters of the Georgia Senators. 
Mr. Cobb spoke of the able support of Judge White, of 
Tennessee ; and Judge Berrien, of the " frank and cordial 
support from General Harrison, of Ohio, from Col. Hayne, 
of South Carolina, from Mr. Van Buren, of I^ew York . 
and, though last, not least, from Judge White, of Ten- 
nessee." 

To Messrs. Cobb and Berrien, Governor Troup wrote : 

Executive Department, ] 
MilledgevilU, Uh May, 1826. [ 

Gentlemen : I have received the several communications 
which you did me the favor to write, explanatory of the 
proceedings of the Senate, connected with the amendment 
of the old, and adoption of the new, treaty. It gave me 
pleasure to learn that you had disapproved those proceed- 
ngs, and voted against the instrument called the new 
itreaty. 

I recognize no power in the Senate of the United States, 
in conjunction with the President, to abrogate, for any 
political consideration whatever, any treaty constitutionally 



440 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROITP. [Chap. XII. 

ratified ; much less the power assumed by that body, to re- 
voke an Article of the Convention of 1802, between the 
United States and Georgia, which establishes the boundary 
between Georgia and Alabama, and to prescribe a new 
boundary different from and inconsistent with it. 

I recognize no power, in the President and Senate, to 
guaranty to the Indians, in perpetuity, those lands, which, 
by the Convention, they were pledged to surrender to Geor- 
gia at an early day, and which ought to have been surren- 
dered long ago. 

I cannot admit that the President and Senate can render 
null and void, an act of the Legislature of this State, 
founded o.n a treaty constitutionally ratified, by an arbitrary 
revocation of that treaty. 

The cancelmentof the old treaty had been resolved, right 
or wrong ; for, this extraordinary and unheard of measure 
was taken on the naked allegation of the President, unsup- 
ported by a single document; whilst the nngenerous rebuke, 
by the President, of the friendly Chiefs, in his ofiicial 
message, shows the temper which dictated it. 

Unless all the sources of information here, shall prove to 
be erroneous and deceptive, the State (if the validity of the 
new treaty be admitted,) has been defrauded of one million 
of acres of her very best lands. 

Do me the favor to present my best thanks to General 
Harrison, Colonel Hayne, and Mr. Van Buren, and Judge 
"White, for their able and liberal co-operation with you, in 
the cause of the weak against the strong ; and, as I trust, 
of the just against the unjust. 

With great respect and consideration, 

G. M. Troup. 

To another letter from the Governor, Judge Berrien re- 
plied on 30th May, giving, more particularly, the grounds 
of opposition to the treaty, the injunction of secrecy hav- 
ing been previously removed from the proceedings of the 
Senate. Unable to insert the entire letter, we give the 
following synopsis.* 

Speaking of the opposition of Mr. Cobb and himself, he 
said : 

"Our course on this subject was plain and straight- 
forward. We denied the power of Congress to annul the 

* Mr. Cobb was absent, omng to domestic misfortunes, and could not join in this 
letter.— Ed. 



Chap. XII.] LETTER OF SENATOR BERRIEN. 441 

old treaty, without the consent of Georgia, "We de- 
chared our readiness to investigai-e, and onr ability to repel, 
any charge of fraud which could be brought against it ; 
but we refused to consider the depositions taken by Gen. 
Gaines and Major Andrews, as evidence on this question, 
because they were ex parte ^ were taken in a collateral pro- 
cedure, and while the Indian Agent, retaining his station 
substantially, though nominally suspended, was able to 
exercise an undue influence in the Nation." 

After referring to some intermediate matters, the writer 
added : 

"It was at this period that my colleague and Major 
Meriwether, after examining various maps, came to the 
conclusion which has been communicated to you by the 
former, and which was announced as our opinion to the 
Secretary of War ; but he was, at the same time, told that 
the proposed cession, afterwards carried into effect hi the 
supplemental Article, would not remove our objections io 
the treaty, nor would anything short of a surrender, in 
terms, of all the lands within the limits of Georgia. The 
course which we prescribed to ourselves, was this : First, 
to maintain the old treaty inviolate — Second, failing in this, 
to obtain a cession, in terms, of all the lands in Georgia, 
under the new treaty — Third, if this could not be done, to 
obtain as much land as we could, averring, at the same time, 
our determination to oppose the treaty as an infraction of 
the rights of Georgia." 

Referring to various unsuccessful motions to amend, &c., 
the letter said : 

"In all this we failed. The treaty was ratified, and we 
recorded our votes against it. The reason assigned for its 
ratification, and which appeared to influence the members 
generally, was, that there was no evidence that any of the 
Georgia' lands were excluded; and that, if, when the line 
between Georgia and Alabama was run, it should appear 
that any had been left out, immediate measures would be 
taken to procure it. It \vas in vain that I replied that the 
wishes and immediate rights of a sovereign State ought 
not to be thus put to hazard— that the uncertainty under 
which we were acting, was the fault of th.e United States, 
as she had prevented or delayed the running of the line 
between Alabama and Georgia— that, unless we could 
have all our lands, we were^entitled to ask that the old 
treaty should be maintained, or the charges against it 
56 



442 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUF. [Chap. XII. 

proved, and that the Senate ought not to shrink from the 
investigation. My colleague reiterated these ideas, and 
made other suggestions ; but they were unavailing. The 
Senate gladly avoided the unpleasant investigation which 
awaited them, if they rejected the new treaty; and ratified 
it, as I firmly believe, rather in the hope than the belief 
that all the lands within the limits of Georgia would be 
ceded by it. 

" Defeated in these particulars, I still thought it an act of 
duty to the friends of Mcintosh, and interesting to Geor- 
gia, to attempt something for their relief, and for the 
encouragement of their emigration. In this I have suc- 
ceeded to an extent which you have no doubt seen, as the 
act has been published. Then came the bill appropriating 
money to carry the treaty into effect, and with it the 
discovery of the fraud which is developed in the report of 
the Committee of Conference, which I sent you. Tliis com- 
pletely turned the tables on our accusers, and sucli was the 
indignation of the Senate, that, if the new treaty had 
been then in our power, it would have been promptly re- 
jected," &c. 

The letter concluded : 

" Such, Sir, is a brief narrative of this affair. We can- 
not say, with Francis, that we have lost everything but 
our honor ; but we can say, with honest pride, that it is 
unimpaired." 

The " fraud,'* to which Judge Berrien referred, as de- 
veloped in the report of the committee, was shown up in 
that report made to the Senate on 17th May ; from which 
the following is extracted : 

"The paper, marked A, is a copy of the statement fur- 
nished to the Secretary, by the conferees ; and, as appears 
by his last letter, corresponds with that spoken of by Mr. 
McKenney'-' in his report, as having been furnished to 
him by the Cherokees, Ridge and Yann, and by him shown 
to the Secretary. From the facts stated in the documents 
siibmitted^ it is manifest that it is the design of the delega- 
tion hg lohom the treatg was negotiated, to ma.Jce a distribu- 
tion^ of the greater part of the money to he paid ly the 
United States, under the treaty, among themselves, three 
Cherokee Indians, who had no interest in the lands, and, 
consequently, were not entitled to any portion of the money, 

* Then at the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.— Ed, 



Chap. XIL] FRAUD IN NEW TREATY. 443 

and a few selected individuals^ in gross fraud of the riglds 
of the Nation. The particulars of the contemplated distri- 
bution are stated in the paper marked A," &c. 

We have italicized a portion of the above, that the reader 
may note some of the influences by which the new treaty 
was negotiated ; and now submit " the paper marked A." 
The reader will bear in mind, that the " three Cherokee In- 
dians" were John Ridge, Joseph Yann and Major Ridge, 
mentioned below. 



Statement referred to in the letter of James Barbour, 
Esq., Secretary of War, and communicated to him by the 
committee of conference, showing the terms of the agree- 
ment for the proposed distribution of the money to be 
received under the Creek treaty. 

John Ridge, $15,000 ; Joseph Vann, $15,000 ; Opothle 
Yoholo, $lij,000 ; John Stidham, $10,000 ; Menawee, 
$10,000; Charles Cornnells, $10,000; Mad Wolf, $6,000; 
Paddy Carr, $500; Tippee, a young man, $200; to the 
remaining members of the Delegation, each, (seven in 
number,) $5,000, $35,000 ; Little Prince, $10,000 ; Took- 
enehaw, of Tuckebatchie, $10,000 ; Tuskenuggee Mallow, 
$10,000; Major Ridge, of the Cherokees, $io,000; Tuck- 
ebatchie Tuskenuggee, $1,000; Tusi^enehaw Cusseta, $2,- 
000; Ilubi Hojo, $1,000; McGillivray, $-1,000. 

On the 9th of May, the bill to appropriate money to 
carry into effect the new treaty, being before the House, 
the Representatives from Georgia (through Mr. Forsyth,) 
presented a protest, signed by all of them, from which the 
following extracts are here made : ''• "" "^ * 

That, by a contract, m.ade at the Indian Springs, between 
certain Ciiiefs of the Creek tribe, and the Commissioners of 
the United States, on the 12th of February, 1825, the claim 
of the Creek Indians to the land occupied by that tribe 
in Georgia, was extinguished, and provision made for their 
removal by the 1st day of September, 1826 ; that this con- 
tract was, on the 7th of March, 1825, duly and solemnly 
ratified and proclaimed by the President of the United 
States, acting by the advice and with the consent of the 
Senate; and that Congress, anticipating such contract, had 
appropriated the sum of 210,000 dollars towards the exe- 



444 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

cntion of It. This contract partially fulfilled, on the part 
of the United States, their obligation, under the compact 
with Georgia, of 1803, and removed every difficult}^ inter- 
posed by the occupation of the Creek Indians to the full 
exercise of all the" vested rights of the State over a consid- 
erable portion of her soil and territory. That the under- 
signed are under the solemn conviction, that neither the 
President alone, nor the President and Senate conjointly, 
nor the Government of the United States, have any con- 
stitutional power, without the consent of Georgia, to inter- 
rupt or invalidate, on any pretense whatsoever, the right 
secured to that State, by this contract, made in obedience 
to an Act of Congress, and ratified with all due solemnity : 
That the new contract, for which an appropriation is now 
asked, differs from that of the Indian Springs, in this: 
that it does not provide for the removal of the Creek In- 
dians, prior to 1827, and does not expressly provide for 
their removal from all the lands occupied by them in Geor- 
gia. The undersigned are, therefore, compelled, by a just 
sense of what is diie to Georgia, to protest, as they do most 
solemnly protest, against it, as violating the rights of that 
member of the Union of which they are the Representa- 
tives, leaving it to the Constitutional organs of the State 
sovereignty to vindicate or to waive those rights, as their 
own sense of propriety, their duty to the people of the 
State, and their reverence for the Union of the States, un- 
der the Federal Constitution, may dictate. 

A long and excited debate arose, in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, upon the bill to appropriate money to carry into 
effect the treaty, in whicli several of the Georgia Repre- 
sentatives, particularly Mr. Forsyth, Cols. Tattnall and 
Cuthbert, and General Thompson, took part. Mr. Forsyth 
denounced the whole affair of the ncAv treaty as " a stu- 
pendous fraud," and, in sev^^al exceedingly able and elo- 
quent speeches, vindicated the State of Georgia and her 
authorities, &c. Col. Tattnall, denying the power of the 
Federal Government to undo the old treaty, declared his 
readiness, if force should be resorted to, to shoulder his 
musket, to defend, at every hazard, the rights of Georgia, 
and to enforce that treaty. 

Mr. Forsyth's speeches were the most elaborate of those 



Chap. XII.] MESSRS. FORSYTH AND BERRIEN. 4.45 

delivered by Representatives from Georgia, and were ex- 
ceedingly pungent and able ; bnt we cannot give even a 
synopsis. On the 8th of May, referring to the determina- 
tion of Georgia to survey the lands, he said : 

"This determination of the State peaceably to survey its 
own lands, v/as the pretext for one of the most high-handed 
measures ever witnessed in a free Government. The right 
was unquestionably with Georgia. Admitting it to have 
been doubtful ; allow even that the President was correct; 
that his obligation was to interpose ; see, sir, how that ob- 
ligation was performed. No judge was called on, no 
magistrate sought to command the services of the Marshals, 
Sherifis, or any other civil officer ; but a direct appeal was 
made to force, in the most odious of its forms — military 
force — a portion of the standing army, of the hired sol- 
diery, were the instruments ordered to be used against a 
State law — a military force previously carried to the scene 
of action, with the design of preserving peace among the 
Indians ! I ask, by what authority the iPresident employed 
this military force, in a time of profound peace, against 
one of the confederacy ? " 

On the lOtli of May, the question being before the Sen- 
ate, on the report of the committee of conference, consid- 
erable debate followed, in which Judge Berrien took part ; 
and from his speech v\^e extract the following : 

"The murder of Mclntosb — the defamation of the Chief 
Magistrate of Georgia — the menace of military force to 
coerce her to submission — were followed by the traduction 
of two of her cherished citizens, employed as the Agents 
of the General Government in negotiating the treaty — 
gentlemen, whose integrity will not shrink from a compari- 
son with that of the proudest and loftiest of their accusers. 
Then the sympathies of the people of the Union were ex- 
cited in behalf of ' the children of the forest,' who were rep- 
resented as indignantly spurning the gold, which was offered 
to entice them from the graves of their fathers, and reso- 
lutely determined never to abandon them. The incidents 
of the plot being thus prepared, the affair hastens to its 
consummation. A new treaty is negotiated here — a pure 
and spotless treaty. The rights of Georgia and of Alabama 
are sacrificed ; the United States obtain'a part of the lands, 
and pay double the amount stipulated by the old treaty ; 



446 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

and those pure and noble and nnsopliisticated sons of the 
forest, having succeeded in imposing on the simplicity of 
this Government, next concert, under its eye, and with its 
knowledge, the means of defrauding their own constituents, 
the Chiefs and Warriors of the Creek ISTation., 

For their agency in exciting the Creeks to resist the for- 
mer treaty, and in deluding this Government to annul it, 
threQ Gherokees^ Rldge^ Vann, and the father of thefor- 
iner^ are to receive forty thousand dollars of the money 
stipulated to be paid by the United States to the Chiefs 
of the Creeh JSTation ; and the Government, when informed 
of the projected fraud, deems itself powerless to avert it. 
Nay, when apprised by your amendment that you also had 
detected it, that Government does not hesitate to interpose, 
by one of its high functionaries, to resist your proceeding ; 
by a singular fatuity, thus giving its countenance and sup- 
port to the commission of the fraud. Sir, I speak of what 
has passed before your eyes, even in this hall. 

One fifth of the whole purchase money is to be given to 
three Cherohees. Ten Thousand Dollars reward one of 
the heroes of Fort Mims — a boon which it so well becomes 
us to bestow. A few chosen favorites divide among them- 
selves upwards of One Hdndked and jifty Thousand Dol- 
lars, leaving a pittance for distribution among the great 
body of the Chiefs and "Warriors of the nation. But it is 
the price of blood — of the blood of Mcintosh. Shallit not 
be freely distributed among those who shed it ? " 

Speaking of Gov. Troup, in connection with the '•' menace 
to employ the military force of the Union" to prevent the 
survey of the lands, Judge Berrien said : 

"To this lawless mandate, her Chief Magistrate submit- 
ted. Unable to repress the feelings which had been excited 
by the contumely of the Government and its Agents, he 
nevertheless respected the peace of the Union, and the 
tyranny was unresisted. The Senate will permit me to say 
a passing word of tJiis calumniated individual — the friend 
and companion of my earlier years — whose name has been 
associated, in the journals devoted to the Administration, 
with the epithets of madness and of treason. Sir, there is no 
man, however vindictive his feelings, however led astray 
by the reveries of a malevolent fancy, who, in the moment 
of retirement, connnuning Vv^th God and his own conscience, 
had the hardihood to avow to himself a belief of the cal- 
umnies which were uttered against the Chief Magistrate of 



Chap. XII.] ACTION OF CONGRESS. 447 

Georgia. Love for his country — indignation against lier 
oppressors — these are the qualities of the patriot — these are 
the qualities which he has exhibited in this controversy." 

Congress passed the bill ; but it provided that the amount 
payable under the third article of the treaty, '■^1)6 paid to 
the Chiefs of the Creek Nation^ to he divided amongst the 
Chiefs and Warriors of said Nation ; and that the same he 
done under the direction of the Secretary of War, in a full 
Council of the I^ation, convened ^cpon notice for that 2-)^i'>'- 
poseP 

Congress also passed another " x\ct to aid certain Indians 
of the Creek Indians in their removal to the west of the 
Mississippi." Tiie Act provided for the payment and dis- 
tribution of certain bounties, &c., amongst the warriors 
emigrating within a certain time, payment for improve- 
ments, &c. ; and is the Act referred to by Judge Berrien, 
(in his letter of 30th May, to the Governor,) as an encour- 
agement to the friends of Mcintosh in their emigration, &c. 

The following private letter may be properly inserted 
here : 

Milledgeville, 12th May, 1826. 

My Dear Sir: It is true that something useful might 
have been accomplished for State rights, if my measures 
could have had their full effect. As it is, there may be 
8onie merit in having intended well and attempted so 
much. With the United States Government and the L'nited 
States people against us, and a lean and shrinking majority 
at home, giving a feeble and reluctant support, it was not 
to be expected that measures of vigor, and adapted to the 
occasion, could succeed. I v/ished nothing more for thei 



success, than a firm, unyielding mtijority ; and, with such, 
I would have given no premium for the assurance of a tri- 
umph. It is most mortifying to me, that, whilst late events 
make it proper to have recourse to similar measures, we 
are likely to find similar results. To sustain the old treaty 
in its integrity, I would only ask the support of a firm, un- 
yielding majority. Yet, what is to be done for principle or 
for State rights, if those, who are most concerned, retire from 
the defence, and leave me to sustain the burden of it ? I 
cannot conceive a condition more pitiable than this ; and I 
regard it with the more loathing, because you know how 



44:8 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

our enemies will rejoice. "We have been defrauded of at 
least a million of acres of our very best land, besides being 
grossly insulted ; and yet, you will hear it said 'tis not 
worth quarreling about. 

Yery affectionately, your friend, 

G. M. Tkoup. 
Dr. W. C. Daniell, 

Savannah. 

The next subject claiming the attention of the Govern- 
ment of Georgia, was the running of the boundary line 
between that State and Alabama ; a subject to which refer- 
ence has already been made, and which derived additional 
importance from its connection with the Creek controversy. 
As early as 1822, the Legislature had recognized the fact 
that the line had never been run, and the Governor had 
been requested "to take as speedy measures as possible" on 
the subject. The same thing was substantially done at the 
session of 1823, and, again at the extra session of 1825 ; 
and in December, 1825, an appropriation was made to run 
this line as well as that between Georgia and Florida. 

On 26th January, 1826, the Governor wrote to the Sen- 
ators from Georgia, requesting them to learn from the 
Secretary of War, whether it was " the intention of the 
United States Government to prohibit the running of the 
dividing line between Alabama and this State." lie added : 

" General Gaines is explicit enough, but the Secretary 
of AYar is sometimes obscure on this subject. The object 
is to possess myself of an unequivocal declaration, which 
will admit of but one construction, and without delay." 

In his reply to the application of the Georgia Senators, 
the Secretary of "War wrote them on 20th February, stat- 
ing that he had been instructed by the President to say, 
" that the uncertain posture of affairs in respect to the 
lands proposed to be surveyed, and through which the di- 
viding line referred to, is to be run, renders it unnecessary, 
if not improper, that any definitive answer should be given 
to the questions contained in your letter, at this time:" but 
that " the earliest moment" which would relieve "the sub- 



Chap. XII.] LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT. 449 

ject of these difficulties," would bo seized to furnish the 
most satisfactory answer possible, &c. 

On 9th March, Gov. Troup Avrote to the President, and 



I embrace, with great pleasure, the first instant, after hav- 
ing been myself corrected, to correct an error into which, 
from the indistinct information received here, of the pro- 
visions of the new treaty, I was inadvertentl}'- led, in the 
communication which I had the honor to address to you on 
the 11th day of February last. 

liTecessarily precluded from acting on official informa- 
tion, until the fete of the new treaty had been decided, it 
became my duty, for the purpose of averting apprehended 
evil, to act promptly upon the best which the nature of 
the case afibrded ; that, of course, is still the best I can re- 
sort to, and it warrants the belief that the 300,000 acres 
supposed to be given to the Clierokees, have not been given 
to them, but to the Creeks ; and, consequently, that the 
dividing line between the two tribes, viz. : Mcintosh's line 
of 1S22, will, for any thing contained iii the nev/ treaty, 
remain unaltered. It is confidently hoped, therefore, that, 
with regard to the running of that line, we may experience 
no difficulty or obstruction from the Cherokees. 

It is the alteration of the other, and most important one, 
viz : the line between the Big Bend and ISFickajack, as 
guarantied by the Articles of Agreement and Cession, which 
remains a subject of specific and distinct remonstrance ; 
and it is the inevitable permanency of that alteration, 
which, replete with evil and full of danger, produces here 
inquietude and alarm. 

The new treaty liaving its foundation in. the last resolu- 
tion of the hostile Chiefs, officially declared, that they will 
never surrender the country, but vv'ith their lives ; the 
inference is irresistible that our rights, depending, for the 
future, on that resolution, the new boundary is to be 
considered a permanent one ; an inference the more war- 
rantable, because the old treaty, being as much a matter 
of contract, passing vested rights, as the Articles of Agree- 
ment and Cession, if the new treaty can rescind the old, it 
can rescind the Articles of Agreement and Cession ; and 
it is the boundary, as established by those articles, which 
now constitutes the chief value of them. 

The articles of the treaty, either as negotiated or rati- 
fied, (if ratified at all,) not being before me, I can only 
57 



450 LIFE OF GEORG M. TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

write of what I understand tliera to be ; with respect to 
other matters of fact, I may be equally deceived or mista- 
ken ; with respect to the inference drawn from them, I 
cannot be. To avert mischief by timely remonstrance, 
and not to misrepresent the views or proceedings of the 
Government of the United States, was the only object in 
addressing the letter to you of the llth ultimo; and if, in 
this or that, there be anything else of error or miscon- 
ception, none will be more ready to make acknowledge- 
ment and reparation, than. 

Sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

G. M. Troup. 

On the 15th of February, Gov. Troup had written to the 
Georgia Delegation in Congress, stating that, in summoning 
the Board of Public Works to meet on the 3d Monday in 
March, he was " obliged, simultaneously, to make prepara- 
tions for the running of the dividing lines between this 
State and. Alabama, and. between this State and the 
Cherokees." He added : " These preparations were in a 
state of forwardness, when I was unexpectedly informed 
that a new treaty had been negotiated, at Washington, 
with the hostile Chiefs, superseding the old one, and estab- 
lishing new boundaries, not only with Alabama, but with 
the Cherokees." After expressing uncertainty as to the 
precise details of the projected treaty, &c., &c., he added: 
" You will see, from the tenor and spirit of the letter" (of 
llth Feb. )" to the President, (a copy of which, with the an- 
nexed documents, is herewith forwarded for your informa- 
tion,) that no time was lost, on my part, if anything could be 
hoped from this last appeal to the Executive Government. 
You will, if you think proper, be pleased to make known 
to it, informally, what could not with so much propriety be 
submitted in that letter, as justificatory of the immediate 
exercise of an absolute right, that it will not be possible to 
commence the work of Internal Imj^rovement, as author- 
ized by the last Legislature, and apparently with the 
universal sanction of the peojjle now warmly embarked in 
this interesting cause, and for which every necessary 
preparation can be made by the opening of the summer, 



Chap. XII.] GEORGIA AND ALABAMA LINE. 451 

unless our permanent Western and temporary Northern 
boundary are satisfactorily ascertained and marked." 

On the 3d of February, Gov. Troup opened a corres- 
pondence with Gov. Murphy, of Alabama ; and, in reply 
to the letter of the former, the latter wrote, enclosing to 
Gov. Tronp a resolntion of the Legislature of Alabama, 
authorizing the Governor of that State to appoint two fit 
persons, as Commissioners, to co-operate with the Georgia 
Commissioners, in ascertaining the boundary line between 
the two States, "according to the terms ot the compact 
made between the United States and the State of Georgia, 
in the year 1802," &c.- The Governor of Alabama having 
solicited the views of Gov. Troup, on the subject, a long, 
but interesting and very friendly, correspondence ensued, 
the result of which was the appointment of two Commis- 
sioners on the part of Alabama, (with a request, on her 
part, to tlse Secretary of War, to appoint U. S. Commis- 
sioners and an Engineer,) and the appointment of three 
Commissioners on the part of Georgia. 

The Secretary of War, on 4th June, communicated (to 
Gov, Troup) his reply to the Governor of Alabama, in 
which he said no provision had been made by Congress, 
" for the appointment of a Commissioner," and no money 
had been appropriated " to meet the expenses of such an 
appointment"; and he added that the President "would 
fain hope that this subject may be equitably and satisfac- 
torily adjusted by the two States, without the interposition 
of the Government of the United States," &c., &c. On 
the ITth June, Gov. Troup wrote to the Secretary of War: 
" It is not apprehended that any serious difiiculty will 
occur between the two States; and the expression of this 
sentiment by the President, so favorable to the removal of 
one embarrassment, will prove, it is hoped, the precursor 
of the removal of all, in the unhappy differences which 
have occurred between the General Government and this, 
on other subjects connected with it." 

[1826.] On this subject of the boundary line between 
Georgia and Alabama, it must suffice here to say, that the 
Alabama Commissioners, Arthur P. Bagby and Charles 



452 I^IFB OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

Lewis, and the Georgia Commissioners, Richard A. Blount, 
Joel Crawford and Everard Hamilton, met at Fort Mit- 
chell, on the 1st of July, ran an experimental or random 
line, and having failed to agree on the true line, the Geor- 
gia Commissioners proceeded alone to run the line, finishing 
their labors on the 19th of September ; and that line, 
although not acquiesced in by Alabama during the admin- 
istration of Gov. Troup, was virtually regarded as the true 
line then, and has ever since formed the dividing line 
between the two States. The reader will find this subject 
referred to in the annual message of 1826. 

It is proper to add, in this connection, that, in June of 
this year, the Governor of Alabama renewed the corres- 
pondence, giving his own views of the construction of the 
articles of agreement and cession, so far as they related 
to boundary, " in return", as he said, for the views which 
Governor Troup had presented. He added: " I have 
great pleasure in doing so, as it affords another instance of 
the undisguised freedom of all our communications." The 
concluding part of Gov. Troup's reply to that letter, is, as 
follows : 

"With respect to the new treaty an d^ the rights violated 
by it, I am happy to find between us an entire accordance 
of sentiment. If historj^ is philosophy, teaching by ex- 
ample, and the actions of men are to be referrecl to their 
true and appropriate causes, I do not know to what place 
in our story are to be assigned the strange proceedings 
connected with it, or what figure they will cut there. This 
much is certain, that, with regard to us, the old treaty is 
unimpaired ; for it cannot be unknown even to those who 
sought its abrogation, that the rights vested by it are 
vested forever, and that the proclamation which announced 
its legal supremacy, remains an unchangeable record, to all 
future time, for the government of courts of justice, whose 
ministers through all ages, v/hether of refinement or of 
barbarism, must recognize it as passing interests to Georgia 
and Alabama, which, by the universal rule of natural 
justice and equity, no human power can divest. When 
the passions of the day shall subside, and a calm review 
is taken of the past, it is not to be doubted that the removal 
of the Indians will be considered as an indispensable act 
of justice and atonement both to Georgia and Alabama, 



Chap. XII.] LETTER TO DR. DANIELL. 453 

and one of necessary precaution for the preservation and 
happiness of the Indians themselves." 

The following private letter from Gov. Tronp, to his friend 
Dr. W. C. Daniell, will be read with interest : 

MiLLEDGEViLLE, Sth Junc, 1826. 

My Dear Sir : I have just returned from my plantation, 
and take the first occasion to write an answer to your last 
friendly and obliging letter. 

The Government of the United States has long since been 
officially notified by the Governor of this State, that he 
would proceed to survey the lands, in conformity with the 
Act of the Legislature, passed in pursuance of the provis- 
ions of the old treaty, without regard to any thing which 
might be done on the part of the Government of the United 
States to impair or invalidate those provisions. 

If any thing had subsequently transpired to satisfy me 
of the incorrectness or impolicy of this measure, be as- 
sured that, so far from its being persisted in for the sake of 
consistency, it would be most cheerfully and unhesitatingly 
abandoned. It has so happened, however, that every event 
which has followed that notification, has confirmed my 
belief in the propriety of it, and rendered the measure more 
indispensable than ever. It is impossible for me, believing, 
as I do, in the unconstitutionality of the new, and in the 
constitutionality of the old, treaty, to suspend the execu- 
tion of a law express and mandatory in its character, 
whilst no justification could be rendered for such suspen- 
sion, ])ut my own honest conviction of the irrevocability 
of the old treaty and the utter worthlessness of the new. 
And this would be the very best reason which could be as- 
signed in support of the resolution to execute the law : for 
I would never permit myself, even in extremity, to say that 
we had been deterred from doing what we had a right 
to do, what we had an interest to do, and what by the 
competent Constitutional power we were commanded to 
do, only because we were threatened with a good whip- 
ping if we attempted to do it. This, the people whose 
interest it is, have a right to sa}^ ; but, should they say it, 
I assure you, my friend, I will not be with the people. 

I think you will agree with me, now, that if my resolu- 
tion to survey the lands, this time last year, had been backed 
by a strong and resolute majority, we might liave been 
spared many humiliations and sacrifices. We had then 
good reason for changing the resolution — none now for 



454 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chaf. XII. 

changing this. The same reason which would postpone the 
survey, wonkl postpone the running of the dividing line ; 
for the one is equally forbidden as the other. 

It is quite superfluous to say to you, that no man in my 
station respects public opinion more than myself. I believe 
it may sometimes be wrong — when it is so, it will be dis- 
regarded. If I am deserted, it will be no cause of complaint 
with me, because both the honor and the interest involved 
are theirs ; my share is so small that it is not worth fretting 
about. 

Affectionately, your friend, 

G. M. Tjkoup. 
Dr. Daniell. 



The 4:th of July, 1826, w^as rendered yet more memor- 
able, by the decease, on that day, of Thomas Jefferson and 
John Adams. 

By invitation of the citizens of Milledgeville, Governor 
Troup consented to pronounce a eulogiura, " commemorative 
of the virtues, the talents and the public services" of these 
patriots. In consenting to deliver the eulogy on Jefferson, 
(the death of Mr. Adams not being then known at Mil- 
ledgeville,) the Governor, in reply to the invitation of the 
committee, said : 

"Nothing, but an early attachment to Mr, Jefferson, 
made stronger by every incident of his life to the hour of 
his death, could induce me to yield a willing obedience to 
your invitation of this morning. On any other occasion, 
the duties of my office, my utter incompetency to the task 
assigned me, and especially the obligation to be present at 
the approaching commencement of Franklin College, would 
have forbidden it." 

The eulogy was delivered in the Baptist Church at Mil- 
ledgeville, on 29th July, and did justice to both the illustri- 
ous dead ; but we have not space even for extracts, and 
must refer to his equally eloquent notice of the deceased, in 
bis annual message of that year. In furnishing a copy of 
the address, for publication, the Governor said : 

" A copy of the address is reluctantly yielded to your 
request. Acceptable as it may have been to the enlight- 
ened auditory for whom only it was intended, and who 



Chap. XII.] DINNER AT INDIAN SPRINGS. 455 

only could make indulgent allowance for its irayjerfections, 
it is deemed unworthy of the press, and much more so of 
the occasion"'^ Avhich produced it." 

On the 17th of July, Governor Troup, being on a visit to 
the Indian Springs, partook of a public dinner tendered 
him by the citizens of Forsyth and its vicinity, in con- 
sideration of the " eminent services" he had rendered and 
was still rendering the State. The fourth regular toast was : 

" Om' distinguished guest — Gratitude for his public ser- 
vices, honor for his integrity, and admiration for his talents." 

In returning his thanks for the compliment, he said : 

" It is not the less flattering because it is felt to be unde- 
served. Tis true I have endeavored something for the 
public interest — 'tis not the less true that I have, so far, 
endeavored to little or no purpose. You are not ignorant 
of the causes. If, however, for any thing, merit be due to 
any, it is most especially due to you, gentlemen, and to 
those like you, who have at all times, in the true spirit of 
patriotism, and in seasons of dilhculty and trouble, been 
ready to lend a manly and liberal support in sustaining the 
rights and honor of the country." 

He gave, in return, the following sentiment : 

" Thej)ros])ect Jjcfore us — It is brightened by the union 
of honest men for the defence of State rights, and Georgia 
promises to be herself once more." 

Some time in June, the Governor received information, 
from Mr. Fulton, Chief Engineer, and Hon. Wilson Lump- 
kin, a member of the Board of Public Works, then in the 
Cherokee country, of what seemed a determination by the 
Indians not to permit those gentlemen to proceed with their 
oflicial examination, &c. In communicating to the Secre- 
tary of War, on 29th June, the letter of Mr. Fulton, Gov. 
Troup said : 

The enclosed copy of a letter, this morning received, 
from oiir Chief Engmeer, engaged in a reconnoissance un- 
der orders, and within the unsettled limits of Georgia, will 
inform you that he has been stopped by the Cherokees, and 
his further progress threatened to be arrested by force ; and, 

* Amongst the other clistinguisheil citizens who pronouuced eulogies on Jefferson and 
Adams, were Mr. Forsyth, at Augusta, Hon. T. U. P. Charlton, at Savannah, and Hon. Thomas 
Spalding, at Darien.— Ed. 



456 LIFP] OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

further, that these infatuated and misguided people threaten 
to resist, by force, the execution of the measure concerted 
by the Governments of Georgia and Alabama, for ascertain- 
ing the dividing line between the two States. 

On the 6th of August, the Secretary of War, after notic- 
ing the receipt of the Governor's letter and enclosure, and 
stating that they had been laid before the President, said : 

" I am directed to state to you, his opinion, that a survey 
or reconnoissance of the lands secured by treaties to the 
Cherokee Indians, to which treaties the United States are 
parties, and to the observance of which their faith is 
pledged, cannot be lawfully made without the consent 
of the Indians. To obtain that consent, the letter, a copy 
of which is herewith enclosed, has been written to the 
Agent of the United States with the Cherokee Indians. 
The President is persuaded that this consent may be ob- 
tained by amicable and pacific means. If, however, it 
cannot, he deems a resort to coercive measures as altogether 
unwarrantable. If, in the justness of this view, the consti- 
tuted authorities of Georgia should coincide, it will be 
gratifying to the President. But, to guard against the 
consequences of different views on that part, he feels him- 
self required to protest, in the name of the United States, 
against the use of forcible and hostile means to effect the 
purposes referred to in your letter.'" 

Gov. Troup, in his reply, dated 26th August, said : 

To my letter of the 29tli June, announcing the resolution 
of the C'herokees to resist the officers of Georgia in the exe- 
cution of their duties, I did not receive your answer until 
yesterday. Accept my thanks for your politeness in trans- 
mitting, by an enclosure, a copy of your communication to 
the United States Agent, and tender them, if you please, 
to the President, for the counsel he h'as thought proper to 
interpose on this occasion. 

As, in my letter to which yours is an answer, no intima- 
tion had been given of an intention to resort to force to 
execute surveys or reconnoissahces in the Indian country, I 
could not perceive on what authority such intention had 
been assumed, as the basis not only of a premonition that 
the employment of force by this Government, for such 
purposes, would be altogether rinwarrantahle^ but of a 
formal protest, in behalf of the United States, against it. 
Whilst no . doubt v/as entertained of the constitutional 
right of Georgia to protect from insult, and against any 



Chap. XII.] LETTER TO SECRETARY OF WAR. 457 

power, her officers employed within lier territory, in execn- 
tion of her own orders, whether that territory be in the ^ 
occupation of Indians or not, it had not been resolved, 
as yon seem to have imagined, to resort to force to exe- 
cute the engineering reconnoissances or surveys in the 
Indian country; it was resolved to give effectual protec- 
tion to our Commissioners engaged in running the dividing 
line between Georgia and Alabama ; a measure which, if 
it had been provoked, the Executive Government of the 
United States should have been the last to complain of. 
It was not considered possible, that, after having given its 
cheerful acquiescence to the running of the line, it should 
have denied to Georgia and Alabama the only means by 
which, in a probable contingenc}^, tlie measure could be 
executed ; and that, whilst the two States, under the en- 
couragement of the United States, were actual ly engaged 
in its execution, they should be enjoined by the Ijiiited 
States to forbear the only means by which their officers 
could be protected from a threatened insult. It was 
resolved, therefore, to have recourse to force for the pro- 
tection of the Commissioners. All the measures were 
taken to make this force available; and, it gives me 
pleasure to state, as highly honorable to the Chief of it, 
that for this purpose Georgia would have had the cheerful 
co-operation of the Government of Alabama. 

If the President has considered it his duty to interpose 
his formal protest against the execution, by Georgia, of re- 
counoissances or surveys of any kind, in her own territory 
occupied by the Indians, much more is it conceived to be 
the duty of the Governor of Georgia to protest, most 
solemnly, against the doctrines on which that protest is 
founded. 

Sir, it would be unavailing to open a discussion of this 
subject ; the United States Government has long since con- 
cluded to discuss nothing with the States ; it asserts suprem- 
acy, and in the spirit of supremacy it orders and executes. 
^Vithin her chartered limits, Georgia is denied j^wer to 
ask the Indians to sell to lier^ her own lands. She is denied 
the right of way or intercourse, by her own soil, with her 
sister States. Within her own territory she is divested of 
all the rights of sovereignty and jurisdiction, whicli apper- 
tain to it, as if she were the greatest stranger, and is treated, . 
in relation to it, as if she had neither charter, title, claim, 
or pretence of claim. The Indians are the lords paramount, 
and, whilst w^e are not permitted to demand right at all, we 
58 



458 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

are allowed the privilege of receiving favors from them, 
through jou only. My word for it, Sir, these doctrines 
may be fashionable for the day, but they cannot last. Geor- 
gia must be sovereign n}3on her own soil, within her char- 
tered limits ; she has made no smTender of her territorial 
sovereignty and jurisdiction, by entering into the Union. 
The power to "i-egiilate commerce with the Indian tribes, is 
no diminution, much less renunciation, of either. It is not 
necessary to the regulation of commerce with the Creeks 
and Cherokees, that the Creeks and Cherokees should be 
kept within the limits of Georgia ; it is sufficient for the 
exercise of your rights in this respect, that they are within 
your own limits ; but, as in either case, they would be with- 
in the limits of the United States, you will readily perceive 
how vast the difference is between controlling things in a 
country which you justly claim, and in one to which you 
have no rightful claim; in a country where the sover- 
eignty and jurisdiction would be acknowledgedly yours, 
and in cne where, with regard to the sovereignty and 
jurisdiction, you are considered, and will be treated, as a 
foreign power. The United States Government, no more 
than any foreign Government, is permitted to insult officers 
of Georgia, within the territory of Georgia, occupied in the 
discharge of their lawful duty. Georgia has the right which 
she always had, in common with the colonies and colon- 
izing countries, to prescribe limits, within her charter, to 
the territories of the aborigines. It is no derogation from 
this right, that Georgia has never exercised it but on terms 
of treaty ; if she has forborne, from motives of humanity, 
she may deserve praise, but ought not to suffer loss. The 
exclusive right, claimed, by the tJ nited States, to purchase 
lands from the Indians, is only the right to purchase those 
of which she claims the sovereignty and jurisdiction. She 
has no such exclusive right in relation to territory, the sover- 
eignty and jurisdiction of which are claimed by Georgia. 
If Georgia retains iier colonial right under charter, to 
remove the Indians from her lands ; a fortiori^ she has a 
right to enter into peaceable purchase of the same lands. 
To have surrendered this right to the United States, would 
have been virtually to surrender her territory; yet, the 
United States have constantly exercised it, with our toler- 
ance, over the territory of Georgia, as she has over her own. 
Georgia, with her rights of territorial sovereignty and ju- 
risdiction, unimpaired by the Constitution, has, in practice, 
asserted none of these rights ; she has forborne them for 
the sake of peace. 



Chap. XII.] SECRETARY OP WAR TO GOVERNOR. 459 

When, on a late occasion, she proposed an innocent act 
of survey, preparatory to the occupation of her territory, 
acquire d under treaty — an act inconsistent neither with 
rights o"^ the United States, nor with the occupancy of the 
Indians — she was threatened with a military force, as if she 
had been a stranger committing wilful trespass on the ac- 
knowledged property of the United States. 

You will pardon this brief exposition ; it is rendered 
necessary by your recurrence to principles and doctrines, 
the implied admission of which might involve the forfeiture 
or impair the rights of sovereignty and jurisdiction, which 
this State claims over her vacant territory, and of which 
she ought never to be divested, but with her voluntary and 
express consent. 

It was a matter of sincere gratification, when, in a for- 
mer correspondence, I perceived, or thought I perceived, 
symptoms of a kind and conciliatory spirit, which, met by 
one equally kind, would reconcile the parties in controversy, 
giving the past to oblivion, and opening a new way, upon 
lasting foundations, to concord and harmony ; and' now it 
is cause of the most painful regret to observe die slightest 
indications of a return to opposite principles, on the part of 
those with whom the autliorities here have no wish or desire 
so strong as that of cultivating the most amicable and 
friendly intercourse.* 

The Secretarj'- of War wrote to Gov. Troup, on IGth Sep- 
tember, and said : 

By the treaty with the Creeks, negotiated at "Washing- 
ton, it was stipulated that they should retain possession of 
the lands ceded by that treaty, till the 1st January, 1827. 
Through their Agent, John Crowell, they have transmitted 
to this Department, a document of the following tenor : 

[The document was an order issued 9th March, 1826, re- 
quiring the Surveyor-General to give notice to the Sectional 
Surveyors appointed under the Act of 9th June, 1825, to 
repair to Milledgeville, and qualify, on a given day, for the 
discharge of their duties required by that Act, &c., &c. 
The order contemplated the beginning of these surveys on 

* Ou the 16th September, the Governor, iu a private letter to Dr. Daniell, said: 
" The only step as yet taken by the President against the survey, is the entry of a general 
and formal protest against a resort to force by Georgia to run lines or make surveys of any 
kind, in territory occupied by Indiana, without intimating wliether force will be resorted to by 
the United States to maintain that protest. Our Surveyors are, so far, uninterrupted, and by 
this time have, no doubt, carried their lines to the Chattahoochee."— JKo. 



4,60 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TEOUP. [Chap. XII. 

1st Monday of September, 1826, and of the District snr- 
veyors as soon as they should be recjuired. It is not 
important to insert the order entire.] 

And direct him to say, in their behalf, that they are much 
disturbed at the idea of the Surveyors entering the country 
before they can secure their little crops, and remove their 
crops, and to express to the Executive their disapprobation 
of the measure. That while they are perfectly reconciled 
to the terms of the treaty, and will cheerfully comply with 
its provisions, on their part, they hope and believe that the 
Government of the United States will protect them in their 
rights, against the encroachments of Georgia; and they 
ex{)ress their apprehensions that much mischief will ensue 
to them from the proposed pi-emature survey, and the con- 
sequences of which it will be the cause. If the Indians 
had acquiesced i'l your measure, the President, so far from 
interfering, would have been pleased in the speedy fulfil- 
ment of the wishes of Georgia, in relation to the possession 
of these lands ; but, when they are dissatisfied, and have 
appealed to him to cause to be observed the Articles of tliat 
very treaty under which the lands were ceded, but posses- 
sion retained to the 1st of January, 1827, he feels himself 
constrained, by the plighted faith of the Nation, to state 
to you, that he considers an entry on the ceded lands, 
for the purpose of surveying tliem, as a violation of the 
treaty. Ever disposed to promote the wishes of any mem- 
ber of the confederacy, to the uttermost of liis power, the 
President has directed the Agent to use his best efforts to 
reconcile the Indians to the measures you propose, in which, 
if he succeed, you will be duly notified ; but, if that be 
impracticable, it is expected that Georgia will desist from 
any further prosecution of the survey, till it is authorized 
by the treaty ; and when reference is had to the small por- 
tion of intervening time, the President can see no induce- 
ment, on the part of Georgia, to enter the territory of the 
Indians, against their will, and in violation of the supreme 
law of the land. 

The following is the reply of the Governor : 

Executive Department, Georgia, ) 
Milledgeville, dth October, 1826. \ 
Sir : I did not receive your letter of the 15th ult., before 
the 30th, it having been delayed, as appeared by the post- 
mark, at Charleston. 
Be pleased to assure the President, that what has been 



Chap. XIL] GOVERNOR TO SECRETARY OF WAR. 461 

corarannicated to him, as a remonstrance of the Indians 
ao-ainst the survey, is no remonstrance of theirs, but of some 
officious intermeddlers in their behalf, who, in misrepresent- 
ing the Indians, have only given a faithful representation 
of" their own sordid interests and passions. Oar surveyors, 
some of whom have already finished their work, and all 
of whom will have completed it in a very short time, have 
not only suffered no interruption, but have met with the 
most cardial and friendly reception, with the exception of 
a single instance, where two of the lower Chiefs, notoriously 
instigated by white men, had interposed threats, founded, 
as they alleged, on the authority of the Indian x\gent: in 
truth, the subject of survey throughout, has been theoreti; 
cally and practically treated by them as it deserved. The 
survey has not merely been 'regarded as an^ operation 
innocent in itself, and unproductive of harm, either to the 
persons or property of the Indians, but it has been con- 
sidered as a source of accommodation and emolument, 
by opening a market for their surplus comm.odities, which 
are either perishable or not easily removable. The offi- 
cers engaged in it having been appointed by^ the Legis-^ 
lature, are presumed to "carry with them firmness of 
character, which not only forbids the supposition that 
they will commit trespass on the Indians, themselves, but 
warrants the belief that they will, to the utmost of their 
power, prevent others from doing so; and to this effect 
they are instructed. The surveyors operate as a check 
upon that description of persons, hundreds of whom, with- 
out authority of law, but according to custom, intrude upon 
the Indian occupancy, whom netther you nor I, with our 
utmost means, would be able to restrain, and whom noth- 
ing will restrain, but the laws, which, in a short time now, 
will be extended over the country. 

The President concedes the right of occupancy and set- 
tlement to Georgia on the 1st day of January. If, according 
to the established rule, the concession of a right implies 
the concession of all the means, without which that right 
cannot be enjoyed, the survey on the 1st of September was 
an act of indisputable right, 'without which Georgia could 
not occupy the country on the 1st of January. The 
President cannot mean that the survey of the country is 
the occupation of the country, because that would be a 
perversion of language ; and if he only means that the In- 
dians are not to suffer the least disturbance in their persons 
or effects, before the 1st of January, I trust the President 
has found a sufficient guaranty for this, in the universal 



462 LIFE OF GEORGE M, TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

and joyous acquiescence of the Inaians themselves ; and 
here' permit me to say to the President, in all frankness, 
that I believe himself, and yourself, and the Senate, have 
been grossly deceived and imposed on, in framing, at least, 
one of the stipulations of the instrument called the new 
treaty. Why," with regard to the tiine for the occupation 
of the country, was not the provision of the new treaty 
made to correspond with that of the old? This coinci- 
dence would at least have removed one difficulty ; but it 
escaped his and your observation, that it was designed for 
the very purpose, in gratification of the worst of passions, 
by those who seek to embitter the controversy between the 
IJnited States and Georgia, of postponing the settlement 
of the country one year ; a postponement, which, to the 
President, might seem to be no very great evil, but which, 
I assure you, would be considered and felt as a very great 
one, not by ourselves only, but by the Indians and the 
United States. 

The contrivers of this trick believed that you would 
prevent a survey before the 1st of January, and they well 
knew if you did that, consistently with our system, the 
country could not be occcupied before the following year ; 
and the reasons for this, which you may not fully compre- 
hend, are universally understood and appreciated here. 
With a correct knowledge of the ch'cumstances, the Presi- 
dent, " consulting the views and interests of the people of 
Georgia," would never have suffered this despicable strata- 
gem to have passed unexposed or unpunished. 

The survey being disposed of, it only remains to invite 
the attention' of the President to that part of the subject 
from which further embarrassment and misunderstanding 
may possibly arise : I mean the western boundary of 
Georgia, as prescribed contrary to her Constitution and the 
Articles of Agreement, by the instrument called the new 
treaty. My views on this subject have long since been 
subniitted, in all possible candor, to the President. The 
President, however, consulting the views and interests of 
Georgia, as well as the interests of the United States, will 
not suffer, if he can avoid it, a conscientious difference of 
opinion to be a source of mischief and calamity to either. 
I may be mistnken or. deceived, but the impression here 
has been uniform, from the beginning, that the Indians who 
negotiated that instrument, intended to cede to Georgia all 
the lands claimed by Georgia, and that the President, the 
Senate, and the Georgia Delegation, so understood it; 
rumor has lately said that the Indians still so understand 



Chap. XII.] STATE ELECTIONS. 463 

it. Of, all this, liowever, you possess the more ample means 
of information ; and it is only permitted to me to say, that 
if these things be true, it depends on the President to 
remove, by a single word, every obstacle to the adjustment 
of all the differences unhappily connected with this subject. 
With great consideration and respect, 

I have the honor to be 

G. M. Troup. 

In the mean time, the surveys of the lands ceded by the 
old treaty, were proceeding ; and, as is seen by the forego- 
ing letter, some of the surveyors had already completed 
their work when that letter v/as written. There were many 
rumors and some threats of interruption ; but these amount- 
ed to little, and the Governor took the proper precautions 
and measures to protect the surveyors.* 

On the second day of October, the general election for 
Representatives in Congress and members of the Legisla- 
ture, took place. It resulted in the choice of Edward F. 
Tattnall, t in the 1st ; John Forsyth, in the 2d ; Wiley 
Thompson, in the 3d ; Wilson Lumpkin, in the 4th ; Charles 
E. Haynes, in the 5th ; Tomlinson Fort, in the 6th ; and 
John Floyd, in the Yth, Congressional Districts; and in a 
decided majority of Troup men in each branch of the Gen- 
eral Assembly. 

The Legislature convened on the 6th day of November. 
In the Senate, Hon. Thomas Stocks, of Greene, was elected 
President; and, in the House, Irby Hudson, Esq., of Put- 
's Nor was ho iuattentire to the interests of the Indians. Having received information 
that " certain disorderly and evil-disposed persons" had, " on divers pretenses, passed beyond 
the temporary limits of this State, into the vacant territory of the same, making settlements 
therein, or otherwise committing trespasses and depredations of various kinds, on the property 
of Indians, both Creeks and Cherokees ;" he, on the 26th day of Angnst, 182G, issued his proc- 
lamation, " warning and cautioning all such parsons against the penalties which" awaited 
" their disobedience and violation of the laws of the United States and of this State, in the 
premises," and particularly ordering " all property unjustly or unlawfully taken, as aforesaid, 
and brought within the jurisdiction of this State, upon due proof thereof, to be restored," Sic, 
&c.— Ed. 

t On the 23d July, 1827, Col. Tattnall resigned his seat in Congress, on account of ill 
health, and was succeeded by lion. George R. Gilmer. 

Mr. Forsyth having been elected Governor on the 1st Monday in October, 1827, resigned his 
place in Congress on the 13th of the game month, and was succeeded by Hon. Richard H. 
Wilde. 



464 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

nam, was elected Speaker — both members of the dominant 
party. The result of these elections indicated a majority, 
on joint ballot, of twenty-five votes. 

On the second day of the session, the Governor sent in 
the following message to the two Houses, which we are re- 
luctantly compelled to abridge : 

Executive Department, Georgia, ) 
3filledgeville, Wi Novemher, 1826. ) 

Fellow-Citizens : The political year just terminated has 
been distinguished by nothing so much as the decease of 
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, who, after laying the 
foundation of American Independence, and filling the 
highest offices of State, through a long series of time, sur- 
vived to the fiftieth anniversary of the Independence they 
had declared ; and on that day, almost at the same hour, 
died, full of years and full of honor, deplored by the whole 
nation, whose grief was testified by a universal moarning, 
accompanied with every demonstration of love, respect and 
veneration. Among the many tokens of the tender mercies 
of Divine Providence toward our country, none have been 
more signal than those which accompanied this memorable 
dispensation ; so much so, that our sorrows have found solace 
and comfort in the admiration and gratitude due to Al- 
mighty God, for the special interposition, which, by its 
circamstances, made their deaths not less glorious than their 
lives had been exemplary and illustrious. 

It was known to the last Legislature, that, for certain rea- 
sons expressed by the President of the United States, he 
would call the attention of Congress, at their first meeting, 
to the validity of the treaty negotiated at the Indian Springs, 
in 1825 ; and, in his message to the Congress, at the opening 
of the session, after announcing that " the treaty had been 
ratified under the unsuspecting impression that it had been 
negotiated in good faith," he promised to lay before tliat 
body the subsequent transactions in relation to it. The 
President tailed to do so. Toward the close of the session 
of Congress, he did submit to the Senate a new treaty, in 
abrogation of the old one, with a general declaration of the 
falseiiood and deception practiced by the Commissioners, in 
their ofiicial communications with the Government, of the 
numerical inferiority of the party which signed it, and of 
their consequent inability to carry it into eftect, but unac- 
companied by a single document or voucher to support any 



Chap. XII.] ANNUAL MESSAGE OF 1826. 465 

fact or principle contained in that declaration. The Senate, 
as you know, ratified the treaty ; and the one of the Indian 
Springs, of prior date, of prior ratification, and^ passing 
vested rights to Georgia, was declared nnll and void. The 
objections to this proceeding, considered altogether novel 
and unprecedented, were obvious. Georgia, for whose 
benefit alone the treaty was negotiated, was deprived, 
without her consent, of interests already vested. The party 
with- whom the old treaty had been negotiated, was not 
recognized as a party at all in the conclusion of the new ; 
and, in the execution of the new treaty, without their con- 
sent, and even against their consent, they have not merely 
been deprived of every right Avhich they could claim, un- 
der the old or new, but have been, to all intents and 
purposes, denationalized, and forced either to submit un- 
conditionally to the power of their enemies, or to abandon 
their country. It was with a knowledge of what was in 
prospect, from the first annunciation of the President to 
Congress, that the Legislature of Georgia, at the close of 
its session, again reviewed and again confirmed the validity 
of the treaty of the Indian Springs. 

This confirmation was the more imposing, because the 
Legislature which first acknowledged the authority of that 
treaty, had returned to the people, its conduct had been 
passed in review, and of course a favorable verdict pro- 
nounced upon it. The act of the Legislature, founded on 
the provisions of the old treaty, haying been, as it were, 
re-enacted by a succeeding Legislature, was to be regard- 
ed as mandatory and imperative, to be carried into eflect 
by the Executive under his oath of ofiice, according to its 
requisitions, unless forbidden by paramount considerations ; 
there could be none paramount, but what would be found 
in the Constitution of the United States, and none such 
were found. The Constitution itself, in denouncing an act 
impairing the obligation of contracts, recognized the sacred- 
ness of the treaty of the Indian Springs. The Executive 
of Georgia, therefore, had no alternative but to carry that 
treat}^ into eftect, in conformity with the repeatedly ex- 
pressed will of the Legislature. His intentions were early 
communicated, in the most frank and ingenuous manner, 
to the Executive Government at Washington, and, from 
that time to the present moment, he has never ceased to 
remonstrate and protest, on every occasion requiring it, 
against any act injuriously afi'ecting interests of Georgia 
derived under it. But there were other reasons for main- 

59 



466 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

tainingtlie inviolability of the treaty of the Indian Springs. 
By that treaty, Georgia had acqnired all her territory with- 
in the Creek limits ; by the new, she was to acqnire less ; 
and the difference betM'-een them was, by the stipulations 
of the new, guarantied to the Indians forever. The Gov- 
ernor could in no manner recognize the power of the Presi- 
dent and Senate, by the abrogation of the old treaty, to 
violate the Constitution of Georgia. The Constitution of 
Georgia, as well as the articles of agreement, entered into 
in conformity with it, had settled her permanent boundaries 
irrevocably. The new treaty prescribed new boundaries 
for Georgia, and by its perpetual guaranty made them per- 
manent. Lands, the rightful property of Georgia, were 
taken from, her and ceded to the Indians forever, and the 
jurisdiction over the river Chattahoochee, which had been 
secured exclusively to her by the original Charter, by her 
Constitution, and by the articles of agreement and cession, 
was divided by the new treaty between Alabama and Geor- 
gia. As no power is given by the Constitution of the 
United States to the Government of the United States, to 
alter or revoke the Constitution of a State, it would have 
been not merely an unpardonable indifference to her rights 
and honor to have submitted in silence to these palpable 
infractions of them, but the Chief Magistrate would have 
believed himself guilty of a criminal desertion of the inter- 
ests of the State, if his sanction or countenance had been 
given to such an instrument. If the difference between 
the provisions of the old and new treaties had been a nom- 
inal, not a real, difference, the United States and Georgia 
could have proceeded in good faith, and without collision 
of interest, to execute either, as the one or the other was 
believed to be the Constitutional law ; but as those provis- 
ions were variant in several particulars involving essential 
rights, and as one of them especially, whether so designed 
or not, would have effectually postponed the settlement .of 
the country for an entire year, it could not be expected 
that Georgia would surrender rights, interests, and principle 
too, because the President of the United States considered 
the new treaty the Constitutional law. 

The Government of either State is to be considered as 
an independent moral agent, having a conscience of its 
own, the arbiter within itself of right and wrong, to be 
influenced or controlled only by Divine authority; and 
the conscience of this Government has already passed 
definitively on the validity of the treaty of the Indian 
Springs. And here permit me to remark, that, with re- 



Chap. XIL] ANNUAL MESSAGE OF 182G. 467 

gardto the rights of sovereignty and jurisdiction generally, 
which Georgia claims under her charter, to the territory 
within her limits in the occupancy of the Indians, there is 
such a radical diiference of opinion between the authorities 
of Georgia and those of the United States, that the har- 
mony and tranquillity of the two Governments, so much to 
he cherished by all good men, can never be maintained 
uninterruptedly until those Indians shall have been removed. 
In illustration of this, it is sufficient to inform you, that, 
on a recent occasion, the right of Georgia to make even a 
reconnoissance within that territory, with a view to event- 
ual internal improvement, was denied, and that denial 
accompanied by a formal protest of the President of the 
United States against it ; and, morever, that when, about 
the same time, there were indications of an hostile feeling 
on the part of the Indians, which threatened interruption to 
our Commissioners engaged in running, with the consent 
and approbation of the United States, the dividing line be- 
tween Alabama and this State, and precautionary measures 
were taken for their safety, Georgia was given to under- 
stand that she had no right to extend her protection to her 
own officers, engaged on her own soil, in carrying into effect 
an act of her own Legislature, against such hostility. It 
is vain to look into the Constitution of the United States 
to find what rights of sovereignty and jurisdiction, acquired 
under the charter over the territory within her limits, 
Georgia has surrendered to the Federal Government. No 
such surrender has been made ; and yet, Georgia, in her 
late intercourse with the United States, has been treated in 
this respect as if she had no rights of sovereignty or juris- 
diction at all ; and this, too, whilst the laws of the United 
States, as well as the Articles of Agreement and Cession, 
distinctly recognize and proclaim them, and of course to 
the very same extent as they are asserted b}^ the treaty 
of Hopewell and others. 

The forlorn and helpless condition to which the Mcin- 
tosh or friendly party of the Creeks, have been reduced 
by the continued persecutions to which they have been 
exposed, is submitted to you as claiming your humane and 
benevolent consideration. This portion of the Creek tribe, 
having fought the battles of the United States, and van- 
quished the hostile part of it, who were at once their 
enemies and the enemies of the United States, it was 
hoped that they would have been regarded with some 
degree of favor by that Government and people, in whose 
defence they had expended their blood, and put to hazard 



468 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [CnAr. XII. 

everything dear to them. For a time this hope was not dis- 
appointed ; General Jackson, by his treaty of 1814, had 
recognized their services and their claims ; their chieftain 
was distinguished by the favor of the Government, and he 
and his followers were regarded not only as the faithful and 
devoted friends of the whites, but as the conquerors of the 
Ked Sticks, then numbering two-thirds of the whole na- 
tion, whose rights of territory, by the laws of war, passed 
to the victors. It was the conviction of the justice of their 
cause, and of the rights acquired by it, which dictated the 
letter of the Secretary of War, of the 17th day of March, 
1817, recognizing in full the power of Mcintosh and his 
followers to sell the country. When, in obedience to the 
expressed wishes of the United States, Mcintosh, with others, 
proceeded, at the treaty of the Indian Springs, to exercise 
this acknowledged power, the power was denied, and 
the murder of himself and chiefs, v/hich followed, looked 
upon without emotion, whilst the murderers were cherished, 
caressed and honored by the Government of the United 
States ; his followers, letl without home, without protec- 
tion, without bread, and finally denationalized and put 
under the ban ; so that, at last, they were considered as no 
part of the nation, having no claim of territory, and, of 
course, no rightful participation in the consideration for 
which the territory sold ; and, what is worse than all, the 
money which should have been given to them under tlie 
treaty, not only given to their enemies, but made the in- 
strument of seducing from their allegiance the friends of 
Mcintosh, who had no alternative but to take the bribe or 
share the calamities of the party. To complete their 
degradation as an unworthy and ignoble race, the Presi- 
dent, in his official message to the Senate, has deigned to 
stigmatize them as " an impotent and helpless minority," 
"unable to execute their engagements;" "as fugitives 
instigated by a vindictive fnry," " making extravagant 
and unwarrantable demands, whilst they were eating the 
bread and begging the protection of the United States :" 
and again, as " a party making unwarrantable pretensions 
and extravagant demands, and having no claims on the 
United States, other than of impartial and rigorous justice." 
Is it to be wondered, that, under such treatment, the friendly 
party should be reduced to a mere remnant, an impotent 
and helpless minority ; or is it not a subject of wonder, 
that, instead of the 1000 which remain, there should be 
one left bearing the name or rallying under the standard 
of Mcintosh ? We cannot permit ourselves to believe that 



I 



Chap. XII.] ANNUAL MESSAGE OF 1826. 469 

the Congress of the United States will not itself regard with 
tenderness and compassion a portion of tlie human family, 
reduced by reverses to piteous distress, deserted by the in- 
constancy of friendship, and abandoned to the sports of 
fortune. 

Whether, in reference to that part of the territory of 
Georgia yet in the occupancy of the Cherokees, you will 
think proper, in conformity with the recommendation to 
that effect, contained in a late message, to extend the laws 
over it as a right resulting from your general sovereignty 
and jurisdiction, or whether you will abide the result of 
future negotiations by the United States to extinguish 
their claims, in virtue of the compact of 1802, will be 
for you, as the only competent authority, to decide. A 
state of things so unnatural and so fruitful of evil, as an 
independent Government of a semi-barbarous people co- 
existing within the same limits, cannot long continue ; and 
wise counsels must direct, that relations, which cannot be 
maintained in peace, should be dissolved before any occa- 
sion can occur to break that peace. How ungenerously 
tantalizing to this unhappy tribe, would be a policy invit- 
ing them to a local habitation and repose, when the fates 
had already decreed their destiny to be fixed and irreversi- 
ble upon another soil ! To perpetuate the remnant of a 
noble race, we ask of the United States to give them a 
resting place within boundaries of their own, fruitful, am- 
ple and salubrious ; such as they command, and such as in 
humanity they should bestow ; where the arts of civiliza- 
tion and the lights of Christianity can reach them, unmixed 
with the corrupting and contagious vices of the whites, and 
where their perpetuity and independence can be assured. 
If the United States hesitate now, a few years will bring 
them to just reflections, but too late to save from irredeem- 
able waste and decay the numerical strength and moral 
energies of a people, so far preserved by the encourage- 
ment and patronage of the United States, with the toler- 
ance of Georgia. 

[The portion which is here omitted, of this paragraph, 
refers to the running of the line between Georgia and 
Alabama, by the Georgia Commissioners, with the assist- 
ance of J ames Camak, as Mathematician, and E. L. Thomas, 
as Surveyor, also, the Chief Civil Engineer, &c., and to 
the Governor's " entire satisfaction ;" and his regrets at the 
non-concurrence of the Alabama Commissioners, &c., &c. 



470 T^IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

If the first bend above Ucliee and Coweta and Cussetali 
towns, from whicli a line to Nickajack did not strike tlie 
river, would not satisfy the requisitions of the articles of 
agreement and cession, it was not to be expected that any 
other bend above it, and farther removed from Uchee and 
the towns, would. It was the less to be expected that the 
Commissioners of Georgia would consent to pass that bend, 
for no other reason than that Alabama would take more, 
and Georgia less, of territory by it. And when the Com- 
missioners, without the concurrence of those of Alabama, 
finally adopted the point of Miller's Bend, it was the point 
whicii was about midway between that assumed as the true 
one by the Governor of Alabama, and the one ultimately 
proposed by her Commissioners to ours. As the Commis- 
sioners of Alabama would not agree to run from the first 
bend, immediately above TJchee, and, as a line running 
from that bend intersecting the river, would have made the 
boundary not a straight one as contemplated by the articles, 
but a devious one, straight upon the land and meandering 
on the water, it is diflicult to perceive how the Government 
of Alabama can withhold its assent from a boundary, which, 
contemplated in all its aspects, would seem, at least to us, 
to reconcile more differences, and present fewer objections, 
than any. 

[The residue of this paragraph refers to the expense of 
running the line, &c., and is omitted.] 

[This part of the message, referring to Internal Improve- 
ment, will be found copied into the eighth chapter of this 
work,] 

It is proposed, in concert w^itli the General Government, 
to commence running the dividing line between this State 
and Florida, on the first day of December next. The cor- 
respondence in relation to it, is submitted ; and it will be 
seen that no difiiculties can be expected to arise to embar- 
rass the operation, or to prevent the most desirable conclu- 
eion of it. 

You will receive, with other documents on this subject, 
a communication from the Governor of South Carolina, 
which looks to the improvement of the navigation of the 
Savannah river, by a concert of measures and combination 
of resources of that State and this, depending on the authori- 
ty of their respective Legislatures, with my answer, which 
will disclose to you my own views and opinions in relation 



Chap. XIL] ANNUAL MESSAGE OF 1826. 4fl 

to the subject, aud to which it may be only necessary to 
add that those views and opinions remain unchanged. 

[This portion of the message, referring to the completion 
of Schley's Digest, its approval by the Executive, &c., and 
recommending a digest of Common and Statute law, simi- 
lar to recommendation in message of 1821-, and again ad- 
vising improvement of the " defective organization of our 
own" Judiciary system, omitted,] 

Our Academic Institutions continue to flourish, and 
Franklin College, at the head of them, sustains its merited 
reputation. To its other Professorships, a Chair of Moral 
Philosophy, Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, has been added ; 
and the discipline aud subordination maintained by the 
proper authorities, are not known to be surpassed by those 
which prevail in the best regulated Colleges of the coun 
try. 

[These portions of the message, referring to the Poor 
School Fund, the Militia, the Banks, and especially the 
Bank of Darien, omitted.] 

The organization of the territory lately acquired by the 
treaty of the Indian Springs, will be a subject of early at- 
tention. The public reservations will particularly require 
a provision, which will not merely place them beyond the 
probability of trespass or intrusion, but will make them 
avaihible, with the least possible delay, for all the benefits 
and advantages expected to be derived from them. 
[This portion, relating to militia claims, omitted.] 
The militia claims, and the territorial claims of Georgia, 
remaining unsatisfied for twenty or thirty years, have 
given rise to the unhappy differences subsisting between the 
Federal Government and this. It is sincerely hoped that 
these differences approach to an amicable termination, and 
that enlightened counsels, united to better feelings, will 
restore the harmony which it is so much the interest of 
both parties to cultivate and cherish. Wrong has been 
done to Georgia ; her views misrepresented, and her char- 
acter traduced ; but wrong will come to right, and what 
prejudice has misrepresented, history will correct. That 
history, from infancy to the present moment, falsifies the 
charges by which malignancy has sought to make her odious. 
In all her departments, her Representatives and Magistracy, 
in peace and in w\ar, have failed in nothing of their duty to 



472 I'IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

the United States. To the Constitutional law, a ready and 
cheerful obedience has been rendered at all times. In 
seasons of danger, her contributions have been given with- 
out stint, and her sword drawn upon the first appeal. If 
for these she claims no merit, she deserves no reproach. 
They are the righteous only whom we acknov/ledge as our 
peers ; and to their judgment we submit our actions, without 
bespeaking for them anything but the award due to their 
intrinsic merits. 

I cannot conclude this message, without congratulating 
you on the blessings communicated to society by that uni- 
versal toleration of religion, (the guaranty of our political 
constitutions,) by which the intolerant himself, as well as 
the believing and unbelieving, are exempt from all respon- 
sibility, but to their Maker; whilst the numerous sectaries 
of the Christian Church, dififering in creeds, but united in 
the faith given to the sermon on the mount, preach and 
worship securely, almost in tlie same temj^le, spreading' the 
benign doctrines of that sermon far and wide, impressing 
their sacredness by precept and example, and laying the 
prosperity of society in the deep foundations of a pure 
morality. 

It becomes nations and communities, like individuals, 
from time to time, to render homage and adoration to the 
Supreme Governor of the universe, the Author of every 
good ; to acknowledge His power ; to make confession of 
ains ; to ask their forgiveness ; to supplicate Ilis mercy, and 
to deprecate His wrath. It especially becomes us, the most 
favored of the children of men, to display our gratitude 
and thankfulness for the continued dispensations of His 
})aternal goodness, by which our Independence and liber- 
ties are preserved, our industry made fruitful, and its fruits 
protected — physical evils averted, and moral blessings mul- 
tiplied ; so that the prosperity and happiness we enjoy, not 
only transcend our deserts, but promise a destiny more 
elevated than any portion of the human family has attain- 
ed. To set apart a day of thanksgiving and prayer, for 
these past manifestations of a superintending Providence, 
may be thought an act of moral and religious duty not in- 
consistent with the high political ones which you are re- 
quired to perform, and may propitiate for us, in the time to 
come, a continuance of the same benignant smiles which 
our un worthiness may forfeit, but which His loving-kind- 
ness is ever ready to dispense to the humble supplications 
of the good and virtuous of all nations. 

Your fellow-citizen, G. M. Tkoup. 



Chap. XII.] FURTHER MISUNDERSTANDINGS. 473 

Altliongli strongly supported at home, in all the promi- 
nent measures of his administration, the Governor was yet 
to encounter a strength of opposition to the chief of them 
all — his policy in regard to the Creek Territory — from the 
Government at Washington; an opposition, the extent of 
whicli was hardly foreshadowed by events then trans- 
piring, and which threatened, for a time, to end in civil 
strife. Indeed, at the commencement of the session, and 
for some time afterwards, every thing seemed to betoken an 
early and amicable adjustment of the difference between 
Georgia and the General Government. In proof of this, 
we need only refer to what follows. 

On the 27th of November, the Secretary of War wrote to 
Governor Troup, that "a long and distressing illness" had 
prevented his replying to the Governor's letter of 6tli Octo- 
ber; but, since his partial recovery, lie had submitted it to 
the President, who instructed him to say tha' the Governor 
appeared " to labor under a most serious mistake, in sup- 
posing that the last treaty with the Creeks" had " affected, 
in any manner, the boundary of Georgia ;" that there was 
not "a tittle in the treaty that" had "the most distant allu- 
sion to that object ;" that, not " for one moment would a 
discussion have been admitted thereon, as it" lay " entirely 
out of the competency of the General Government." lie 
added, further, that, in wishing, anxiously, to get a cession 
of all the Creek lands, every effort was made, but the In- 
dians refused ; that he thought the failure to run the line 
between Georgia and Alabama, was an impediment in the 
way, &c., &c.; and that, but for this, the President would 
have opened fresh negotiations, &c.; and that the President 
would embrace the first occasion, " to carry into effect, by 
fresh negotiation, if practicable, the entire cession," &c., 
&c. 

On the 9th of December, the Governor communicated to 
the Legislature, the letter of Mr. Barbour, by which he 
said it appeared " to have been the intention of the parties 
to the instrument called the new treaty, that Georgia should 
acquire all the Creek lands within her limits," &c. He 
60 



474 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

denied having committed " the most serious mistake" im- 
puted to him, &c., appealed, for his justification, to " the 
language of the new treaty ;" said it was " not necessary for 
the President to anticipate difficulties between Georgia and 
Alabama," &c.; and that, until the boundary between the 
two States, as established by Georgia, should be changed by 
them, it must be considered the true one '' by all the parties 
concerned." 

To the Secretary's letter, received on 9th December, the 
Governor replied on the 11th ; and, after acknowledging its 
receipt, and stating the pleasure it afforded him of hearing 
of Mr. Barbour's recovery from his " late illness," added : 

Whilst I cannot admit the justice of the reproof, that I 
had committed a most serious mistake in believing the 
Western line of the new treaty to have been considered as 
the permanent boundary of Georgia, I have no hesitation 
in expressing my satisfaction that the President of the 
United States has thought proper to declare that it was the 
intention of the parties to that instrument to cede to Geor- 
gia all the lands claimed by her within the Creek limits. 
My practice has been, when I committed involuntary error, 
to make confession and ask pardon. You reprove me for 
a mistake which is not mine, but yours; and, instead 
of the double atonement which a fair course of moral reci- 
procity would exact, I ask nothing but a magnanimous 
acknowledgment of the wrong done me, and will be con- 
tent with a denial of even that, if there shall be no occasion 
in future to ask it, either for myself, or for the State I re- 
present. If the construction was a mistaken or erroneous 
one, it is made so only by your recent declaration of what 
your intentions actually were. The language of the new 
treaty fully justified my construction, and I was not per- 
mitted to seek your intentions through any other medium 
than the language ; that language describes the Western 
line as a permanent one, because it expressly guaranties all 
the lands, lying West of it, to the Indians forever. 

The permanent boundar^^ line of Georgia, as established 
by her Constitution, having been run and marked by her 
Commissioners, and the Legislature having, within a few 
days, sanctioned and confirmed it, by an almost unanimous 
voice, it is now considered, and must be considered, by all 
parties, as the true and settled boundary, unalterable, but 
by the joint consent of Georgia and Alabama. This act of 



Chap. XII.] GEORGIA AND ALABAMA LINE. 475 

the Legislature of Georgia has been announced to the Gov- 
ernment of Alabama, and her concurrence with it is not to 
be doubted, because it is in strict consonance with the most 
rational and disinterested construction which Georgia can 
give to the articles of agreement and cession, and is as 
favorable to Alabama as any other construction she could 
claim ; unless, indeed, she would assume, what we are per- 
suaded she would not, the exclusive right to dictate a 
boundary, regardless of the letter and spirit of the articles. 

The joint committee on the state of the Republic, to 
M'hom was referred so much of the Governor's Message as 
related to the question of boundary between Georgia and 
Alabama, made a report, which passed both Houses, and 
was approved by the Governor on 8th December, express- 
ing the hope that the citizens of Alabama would acquiesce 
" after the whole grounds of dispute" should be "maturely 
and deliberately considered ;" and concluding with the fol- 
lowing Eesolution : 

"That the line run and marked from Nickajack to 
Miller's Bend on the Chattahoochee, is the true line con- 
templated by the articles of cession of 1802, between the 
United States and Georgia ; and that it be recognized as 
such by the State of Georgia/' '' 

On the 8th December, the Governor communicated the 
result to Gov. Murphy, of Alabama, in a very friendly let- 
ter, from which the following extracts are made : 

" I cannot but flatter myself, both from the liberal views 
uniformly disclosed by your Excellency, and those not less 
liberal which must animate the Legislature of Alabama, 
that your concurrence may be asked with at least a reason- 
able prospect of success ; and that two States so nearly allied 
by the ties of interest and of blood, may not be separated, 
even for a moment, on a question in which neither interest 
nor principle, of any great concernment, is involved. ^' * 
-X- * * * Suffer me to entreat your Excellency not to 
permit, so far as depends on you, a controversy to be opened, 
which is the more likely to prove interminable, not merely 
because it is a controversy of boundary, but because, accord- 

* In the Senate, there was no division called for ; in the House, there were only ten votes 
in the negative. — Ed. 



476 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

intr to my best judgment, Georgia will never be satisfied 
with any construction of the articles different from that now 
adopted; and ought not to he, because yon can present to 
her none more rational or more disinterested.'' 



On the 22d day of December, the Governor approved a 
report and resolution, (nn<lerstood to have been drawn by 
the late Judge Clayton,) on the subject of the treaties with 
the Creek Indians, and the differences with the Ger.eral 
Government. The whole document is one of great beauty 
and ability ; but, for its details, we must refer to the State 
papers of that date. It asserted the soil and jurisdiction of 
Georgia to all the territory within her chartered and Con- 
stitutional limits ; condemned the threat of military force 
agamst the State, the refusal of the President to arrest and 
punish General Gaines for " abusing and insulting the high- 
est authorities of a State," the retention of Col. Crowell in 
othce, the attempted abrogation of the treaty of the Indian 
Springs, the assertion of the President that the authorities 
of Georgia had no right to enter the Indian countr}'- with- 
out the consent of the Indians, &c., &c., &c. 

The Governor, also on the same day, approved a report 
of the Senate committee on the state of the Republic, (and 
which had passed both Houses,) on the subject of his special 
message of 9th December, conimanicating the letter of the 
Secretary of War, of 27th November, and which report 
protested against the new treaty, &c., &c. 

A joint resolution was also approved, requesting the 
President to hold a treaty for the cession of the Cherokee 
lands within the limits of Georgia ; also one requesting the 
Georgia Delegation to procure some relief for the fi'iendly 
Indians, and satisfaction to the citizens of Georgia for sup- 
plies, &c., afforded these Indians during the troubles in 
1825, &c., &c. 

A resolution was adopted by the Legislature, approving 
the Governor's measures for protecting the frontier settle- 
ments, and authorizing him to employ military force to 
repel savage invasion, &C.5 &c. An Act was also passed, 



Chap. XII.] CONTROVERSY RENEWED. 477 

extending, to 20th Febrnary, 1S27, the time for District 
Surveyors to make their returns for the contemplated land 
lotter3^ 

In response to the Governor's suggestion, the Legislature 
requested him to " set apart a day of general thanksgiving 
and prayer."" 

Soon after the adjournment of the Legislature, the Gov- 
ernor wrote to the Secretary of War, giving information of 
his having called out a military force to protect the South- 
ern frontier from threatened danger grov^ing out of a 
sudden attack by Seminoles or Lower Creeks, &c., &c. 

[1827.] The reply of the Secretary, dated 16th January, 
1827, to that communication, and to the previous letter of 
the Governor, of 11th December, was a renewal of the 
Indian controversy. He stated that the President had ap- 
proved the conduct of the Governor in calling out the mil- 
itary force, and that the expenses attending the means 
employed by the Governor, were " a proper debit against 
the United States." The concluding part is all that is im- 
portant for insertion here: 

" I trust you will, by reference to my letter, a small part 
of which only I have given you, perceive ho^r greatly you 
have been mistaken, (if I have understood yon correcl'ly,) 
in supposing that the President had declared that all the 
Oreeiv land, within the limits of Georgia, was intended to 
have been ceded by the new treaty."! 

Ou the 26th January, 1827, the day of the receipt of the 
foregoing, Gov, Tronp replied to the Secretary of War, in 
a long and able letter, which we would be glad to publish 
here, in full, but for which room cannot be made. After 
answering the preliminary portion of Mr. Barbour's letter, 
and stating " that the utmost precaution had been taken to 

* In fixing the first Thursday in January, 1S27, the Governor, in his ProclamHtion, recom- 
mended that the various religious denominations, "ivith repentant hearts, make grateful ac- 
Inowledgmentfor the Uessings conferred hy the Universal Fcirent, and, with holy piety arid 
fervent devotion, beseech the forgiveness of sins, and the conii7iuance of His gracious mercy and 
goodness to vs as a People." Amongst other causes for tlianksgiving, was an abundant 
treasury— reported, hy the joint committee on finance, at $792,122.— Ed. 

t On ISth January, before the receipt of the foregoing, Governor Troup, in a private 
letter to Dr. Daniell, said : " Our red and white friends are determined to give mo employ- 
ment as long as I am in offlce.'"— Ed. 



4:78 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP, [Chap. XII. 

make the expedition as little burdensome to the United 
States as possible," he proceeded to state his regret that he 
should, " on any occasion, however innocently, have mis- 
understood or misrepresented," the Secretary of War ; that 
he had immediately informed the Legislature of what he 
had considered the " avowed intention of the President" ; 
admitted that on the face of the new treaty "it did not 
appear to have intended to acquire all the lands," but that, 
when, " apart from the treaty, we sought the intention of 
the parties in matter foreign and extraneous to the treaty, 
there was some reason to believe it was the intention 
of the parties to acquire all the land," &c., &c. Amongst 
other things, he referred to the repeated disclaimer of 
the President " to interfere in settling the boundary" be- 
tween Georgia and Alabama, the rejection by the President 
of the line as established by Georgia, his anticipation of a 
controversy between the two States, and his intimation 
" that if some other line more satisfactory to the United 
States, shall not be settled by Georgia and Alabama," 
measures would "not be taken to acquire the fragment," 
&c. The whole letter showed a sincere desire for the set- 
tlement of the controversy ; and it gave an interesting 
exhibition of the unfortunate difficulties which, as the wri- 
ter believed, without the fault of Georgia, had been thrown 
in the way of an adjustment. It concluded as follows : 

" The United States will acknowledge no boundary for 
Georgia that is not acknowledged by Alabama. "What is 
this but virtually to declare the right of Alabama to dic- 
tate the bou?>dary — a dictation to which if Georgia will 
not submit, she incurs the penalty denounced by the United 
States, of fastening upon her and her people, forever, the 
boundary of the instrument called the new treaty, as the 
permanent boundary established by her constitution?" 

Tlie day following, (2Tth January,) he wrote to the 
President, giving him information of the " frequent inter- 
ruptions" suffered by the Georgia surveyors " from the 
Indians of the Creek nation, accompanied by indignities 
and insults," &c., and stating that the surveyors were "still 
threatened with others of more violent and outrageous 



Chap. XIL] SURVEYOES THREATENED. 4Y9 

character." He further stated that there was reason to be- 
lieve the " Agent of Indian Affairs" was " the prime mover 
and instigator of the same ;" and, in support of that belitf, 
enclosed certain papers ; and he desired^to be informed 
if that officer was acting by " authority" of the President, 
or with his " sanction and countenance." Not supposing 
that, in regard to the construction of treaties, &c., the 
President would " transfer the sovereign attributes to a sub- 
altern agent," &c., he added : 

" If these powers have been insolently assumed by such 
a subaltern, for such purposes, it is not for the Governor of 
Georgia to dictate to the President the measures which 
ought to follow, as well in vindication of the honor of the 
United States, as in reparation of the wrongs done to Geor- 
gia. The President is competent to judge them, and 
the Governor doubts not his willingness to judge them 
rightly." 

The first "'paper" referred to was a letter from Wiley 
Williams, a District Surveyor, dated in Carroll county, 
22d January, 1827, in which, complaining to the Governor 
of the threatened interruption of the sui'veys, by Indians, 
he, amongst other things, said : 

" Eight or ten lusty fellows rode up to my camp, last 
night, with a letter written by Crowell, and signed by 
several Chiefs, and ordered me to desist from surveying 
the land on the west side of the new treaty line," &c., &c. 

James A. Rogers, another District Surveyor, wrote on 
the 23d : 

" Enclosed, you will find a copy of an instrument of 
writing, which was handed to me by a parcel of Indians, 
on the 21st inst. ; and, after I read the letter, they demanded 
of me my compass, which I had to surrender to them ; but 
after a few minutes they agreed to give me back my com- 
pass," &c,, &c. 

He added: "They threatened me very severe if I 
should be caught over Bright's line again, a surveying. 
I have come on to Mcintosh's old place, and liave stopped 
my hands until I hear from you," &c., &c. 

The Indian paper referred to, was directed " to the sur- 
veyors running the land west of the line of the late 



480 I^IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XIl. 

treaty," was dated 12tli January, 182T, signed by Little 
Prince and six others, and said : 

" We, the undersigned Chiefs and head-men of the 
Creek nation, having learnt, with great regret, that you 
are engaged in surveying the laudo west of the line of the 
late treaty, and which was not ceded by that treaty, we 
have again to request and demand of yon, in the most 
friendly terms, that you will desist from stretciiiiig a chain 
over any of our lands not ceded by the treaty," &c., &c. 

In his opening message to Congress, the President had 
not alluded to the difficulties with Georgia ; but, on the 
5th February, 1827, he sent a special communication to 
both Houses, submitting " a letter from the Agent of the 
United States with the Creek Indians, who invoke the 
Government of the United States, in defence of the rights 
and territory , secured," as the message said, " to that 
nation by the treaty concluded at Washington," &c., &c. 
After stating the nature of the complaint, &c., and the 
considerations which had induced him to abstain "from 
the application of any military force," &c., &;c,,and that it 
ought " not to be disgaiscd that the Act of the Legislature 
of Georgia, under the construction given to it by the Gov- 
ernor of that State, and the surveys made, or attempted, 
by his authority, beyond the boundary secured by the 
treaty of Washington," were " in direct violation of the 
suprem.e law of the land, set forth in a treaty which" had 
" received all the sanctions provided by tJie constitution 
which we had sworn to support and maintain," the mes- 
sage added : 

'•Happily distributed as the sovereign powers of the 
people of this Union have been, between their General 
and State Governments, their history has already too often 
presented collisions between these divided authorities, with 
regard to the extent of their respective powers. l!^o in- 
stance, however, has hitherto occurred, in which this 
collision has been urged into a conflict of actual force. No 
other case is known to have happened, in which the appli- 
cation of military force by the Government of the Union 
has been prescribed for the enforcement of a law, the 






Chap. XII. J PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE, &c. 481 

violation of which has, within any single State, been pre- 
scribed by a legislative act of the State. In the present 
instance, it is my duty to say, that if the legislaiive and 
executive authorities of the State of Georgia should perse- 
vere in acts of encroachment upon the territories secured 
by a solemn treaty to the Indians, and the laws of the 
Union remain unaltered, a superadded obligation, even 
higher than that of human authority, will compel the Ex- 
ecutive of the United States to enforce the laws, and fulfil 
the duties of the nation, by all the force commirted fur that 
purpose to his charge. That the arm of military force 
Avill be resorted to only in the event of the failure of all 
other expedients provided by the laws, a pledge has been 
given by the forbearance to employ it at this time. It is 
submitted to the wisdom of Congress to determine whether 
any further act of legislation may be necessary or expe- 
dient, to meet the emergency which these transactions may 
produce." 

Accompanying this message, were sundry documents ; the 
first in order being a letter from Col. John Crowell to the 
Secretary of War, dated at the Creek Agency, loth Jan- 
nary, 1827, stating that, a few days before, the Little Prince 
had complained to him that " the Georgia Surveyors were 
surveying lands West of the line of the late treaty ;" that, 
at the request of that Chief, and in Lis name, he had writ- 
ten to the Surveyors, requiring them to desist, but that they 
" persisted in their surveys to the line run by the Georgia 
Commissioners as the line between Georgia and Alabama," 
&c., &c.; that, " at the request of a number of Chiefs, with 
the Little Prince at their head," he had again written to 
the Surveyors, " in the most friendly terms," " requiring 
of them to stop surveying the lands West of the line of the 
treaty of Washington," and that " a deputation of Chiefs" 
had " accompanied the bearer of the letter, with the avowed 
intention of stopping the Surveyors," &c. 

The letter concluded : 

"The Chiefs have requested me to apprise you that the 
authorities of Georgia had extended their surveys west of 
the line of the treaty of Washington, thereby violating the 
express stipulations of that instrument, which they held to 
be sacred ; and to implore the Government to interpose its 
61 



482 I^IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

aiitliority to protect them in their rights under that treaty. 
If Georgia is permitted to violate that treaty, with impu- 
nity, why may not Alabama? And they ask, where are 
they to look for protection, but to the Government of the 
United States V 

The next document, in order, was the reply of the Secre- 
tary of War to Col. Crowell, dated 29th January, 1827 ; in 
which, after acknowledging the receipt of Colonel Crowell's 
letter above noticed, with " the message of the Chiefs im- 
ploring the Government to interpose its authority," &c., the 
Secretary said : 

" The President directs me to convey to the Little Prince, 
and the Head-men and Warriors of the Creek N'ation, his 
assurances that he feels the binding obligation of the treaty 
of Washington no less forcibly than they ; and that it is his 
intention to execute faithfully every clause and condition 
tliereof. To this assarance he directs me to add, further, 
that he will take immediate steps to secure to them all the 
rights, as these are guarantied in said treaty. But the Presi- 
dent expects it of the Creek Nation, that it will not frus- 
trate his purposes by taking any steps of a hostile charac- 
ter, themselves ; and he enjoins it on you so to counsel 
them in regard to this matter, as to induce them to rely 
upon ih's protection of the United States, and leave the sub- 
ject in controversy wholly to the Government. They have 
very properly made known their grievances, as becomes 
good people ; and farther it will be expected of tliem they 
will not go, but wait for such measures as the wisdom of 
the Government may devise to secure to them their rights, 
as these are guarantied in the treaty of Washington.'' 

The next document, in order, was a letter from the Sec- 
retary of War to Governor Troup, dated 29th January, 
1827, as follows : 

Sir : Complaints have been made to the President, by 
the Creeks, through the United States Agent, against the 
instrusions of the Surveyors of Georgia on their lands, 
guarantied to them by the treaty- concluded with them at 
Washington, on the 24:th January, 1S2G. With these com- 
plaints they have united an appeal to the President, calling 
for his interposition to protect them in their rights, by caus- 
ing this treaty to be inviolably maintained. 



(Jhap. xil] instructions to officers. 483 

The pretensions nnder which these surveys are attempted, 
are in direct violation of the treaty, and, if persevered in, 
mnst lead to a disturbance of the public tranquillity. The 
treaty of Washington, like all other treaties which have 
received the constitutional sanction, is among the supreme 
laws of the land. Charged, by the Constitution, with the 
execution of the laws, the President will feel himself com- 
pelled to employ, if necessary, all the means under his 
control, to maintain the faith of the nation, by carrying 
the treaty into effect. 

I have the honor to be 

Your obedient servant, 

.Ta-mks Baeboitr. 



Besides the foregoing, were two letters from the Secre- 
tary of "War — one to John H. Morel, U. S. Marshal, and the 
other to Kichard W. Habersham, U. S. Attorney, for the 
District of Georgia ; one dated 29tli, and the other SOtli 
January. 

To the Marshal, (enclosing the letter to Mr. Habersham,) 
he said : 

"I am instructed to charge you to lose no time, on the 
receipt of the process, which will be delivered you by the 
Attorney, in promptly executing it, and taking the steps 
directed by law in such cases," &c., &c. 

In his letter to Mr. Habersham, the Secretary of War, 
after reciting that " official information" had been received 
by the President, " that certain persons, under the pretense 
of surveying," had '• entered the lands of the Creek In- 
dians, directly in violation of the late treaty," &c., " and 
directly in violation of the law of Congress, regulating in- 
tercourse with the Indian tribes," said : 

" The chiefs and warriors of this tribe have appealed to 
the President for protection, by whom I am now instructed 
to direct you, without a moment's delay, to proceed to 
obtain the proper process with wdiich to arrest them, which 
process you will cause to be delivered, to the Marshal of 
the District, that they may be made amenable to law,"'^-' 
tfec, (fee. 

* It is hardly necessary to add that no arrests were made ; but it is due to the inomory 
of that patriotic Georgian, Richard W. Habersham, to state, that, after taking such prelimi- 
nary steps as he deemed necessary to prevent embarrassment to the TJ. ?. Government, ho 



484 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

The last paper, in order, was a letter from the Secretary 
of "War to Lieut. J. E. Yintori, of the U. S. Array ; in 
which, after stating the "official information" received by 
the President, in regard to the conduct of the surveyors, 
and other "information, though unofficial," that the In- 
dians had " interposed and prevented" the completion of 
the surveys, and that the chiefs and warriors had " ap- 
pealed to the President to protect them in their rights," he 
added : 

" In this posture of affairs, it has been determined to 
dispatch a special agent, for the purpose of bearing dis- 
patches to the Governor of Georgia, and to the District 
Attorney and Marshal of the United States for that State, 
and also to the Agent of the Creek Indians, to endeavor, 
if possible, to prevent a resort to violent measures, either 
by the authorities of Georgia or the Indians. Confiding 
alike in your zeal, capacity and discretion, I have deter- 
mined to select you for this service. 

" On the receipt of your instructions, you will proceed, 
with the least possible delay, to Milledgeville, and deliver 
the letter addressed to Governor Troup, with your own 
hands, as also to the Attorne}'- and Marshal. Sliould Gov. 
Tronp give you an answer, either verbal or written, you 
will communicate it by mail ; as also the receipt from the 
District Attorney and Marshal, of the instructions with 
which you will be charged for them. Having accom- 
plished this part of the duty assigned you, you will 
proceed to the Creek Agency, and deliver the letter ad- 
dressed to Col. Crowell. Any information you may obtain 
in reference to the object of your mission, you will 
promptly communicate by mail ; particularly, any acts 
of violence which may have occurred, or which may be 
threatened. Carefully abstain from any remarks "which 
may disclose your object, and be still more careful not to 
indulge in any commentary on the affair, which may sub- 
ject you to personal difficulty." 

Lieut. Yinton delivered the Secretary's letter to Gov. 

resigned his office, in a letter to ths Hon. Henry Clay, Secretary of State, in which, after 
declining to appear for the prosecutim, hs added: " In a contest in which the interests and 
chaiacter of Georgia are so deeply involved, I should feel myself unworthy of the office I 
hold, and of the confidence which the President has hitherto reposed in me, if, contrary 
to my views of right, and the higher duties I owe to my native State, I could array myself 
against her."— £». 



Chap. XII.] GOVERNOR'S DEFIANCE. 486 

Troup, on the 17th February. The following is the re- 
ply '■ 

Executive Department, Geoegia, ) 
Milledgeville, 11th Feb., 1827. f 

Sir : I received, this afternoon, from Lieut. Yinton, your 
letter of the 29th ult., and read, within the same hour, 
both it and the copy of it as published in the National 
Intelligencer of the 7th inst. No room was left to mistake 
tlie meaning of this dispatch. Lieut. Vinton announced 
himself, in an introductory note, a copy of which is here- 
with transmitted, as the Aid of the Commanding General ; 
and you are sufficiently explicit as to the means by which 
you propose to carry your resolution into effect. Thus the 
militai'y character of the menace is established, and I am 
only at liberty to give it the defiance which it merits. You 
will distinctly understand, therefore, that I feel it to be my 
duty to resist, to the utmost, any military attack which the 
Government of the United States shall think proper to 
make on the territory, the people, or the sovereignty of 
Georgia ; and all the measures necessary to the perform- 
ance of this duty, according to our limited means, are in 
progress. From the first decisive act of hostility, you will 
be considered and treated as a public enemy ; and, with 
the less repugnance, because you, to whom we might con- 
stitutionally have appealed ibr our own defence against 
invasion, are yourselves the invaders, and, what is more, 
the unblushing allies of the savages whose cause you have 
adopted. 

You have referred me, for the rule of my conduct, to tiic 
treaty of Washington, " which, like all other treaties which 
have received the constitutional sanction, is among the 
supreme laws of the land,'' and which the President is 
therefore bound to carry into eff'ect " by all the means 
under his control." In turn, I take the liberty to refer you 
to a treaty of prior date and prior ratification, concluded 
at the Indian Springs, a copy of the proclamation of which 
under the sign manual of tlie President, I have the honor 
to enclose. On a comparison of dates, the President may 
think proper to remind the Congress that the old grant claims 
preference to the new ; and that, when vested rights have 
passed, the old treaty, like the old grant, has preference of 
the new. 

You have deemed it necessary to the personal safety of 
Lieut. Vinton, to impose on him the injunction of profound 
secrecy, in the execution of your orders, whilst you cause 
to be published, at Washington, the very instructions which 



486 LIFE or GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

disclose those orders and enjoiu that secrecy, and which 
in fact reached this place, by the public prints, even before 
Lieut. Yinton had had an opportunity to deliver your 
dispatch. You mistake the character of the people of 
Georgia. Officers of the United States, engaged in the 
performance of their lawful duties, have only to deport 
themselves as gentlemen, to hnd the same security and 
protection in Georgia, as under the segis of the govern- 
ment at Washington.""' 

I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 

G. M. Teoup. 
Hon. James Barbour, Secretary of War. 

The following orders were forthwith issued : 

Executive Depaktment, Georgia, ) 
MilledgemUe, 11th Feh., 1827. \ 

Ordered, That the Attorney and Solicitors General of 
this State, in every instance of complaint made of the ar- 
rest of any Surveyor, engaged in the survey of the late 
acquired territory, by any civil process, under the authority 
of the Government of the United States, do take all neces- 
sary and legal measures to effect the liberation of the per- 
son so arrested, and to bring to justice, either by indictment 
or otherwise, the officers or parties concerned in such arrest- 
ation, as offenders against the laws and violators of the 
peace and personal security of the public officers and citi- 
zens of this State : That they give professional advice and 
assistance, in their defence against any prosecution or action 
which may be instituted against them as officers in the ser- 
vice of the State, and that they promptly make k'own to 
this Department their acts and doings in the premises. It 
is moreover enjoined on the civil magistrates of this State, 
liaving competent jurisdiction of the same, to be aiding and 
assisting in inquiring into the cause of every such arrest or 
detention, as afcresaid, that the person may be discharged 
forthwith, if illegally or unjustly detained, and in afford- 
ing such redress to the aggrieved or injured party as by 
law he may be entitled to receive. i 
By the Governor : E. H. Pierce, 

Secretary. 

* In speaking of this reply, the Legislature of 1827 said it was "the more satisfactory, 
because, unlike some recreant threats, that are made for effect and intimidation, it was 
baclsed by a preparation so grave and determined, as to relicre it from all suspicion of being 
(■'iJt; or unmeaning" — Ed. 

t Three days afterwards, the Gorernor addressed a '• circular" to the Attorney and Solici- 
tors General, in which he said: " In carrying into effect the order of the 17th inst., you aro 
instructed to assume and support the inapplicability of the penal Statute of the United States, 
ns quoted in the President's late message, to the case of an officer engaged in the service of a 



Chap. XII.] PROGRESS OF AFFAIRS. 48T 

Head-Quarters, Milledgeville, ITth Feb., 1827. _ 
The Major-Generals commanding the 6th and 7th Divi- 
sions, will immediately issue orders to hold in readiness the 
several regiments and battalions within their respective 
commands, to repel any hostile invasion of the territory of 
this State. Depots of arms and ammunition, central to 
each Division, will be established in due time. 
By the Commander-in-Chief: 

John W. A. Sanford, 

Aid-de-Camp. 

It is unnecessary to detail the various measures which the 
Governor took, to put the State in an attitude of defence, 
according to the " limited means" at his command. The 
controversy had at length reached a crisis ; the argument 
had been exhausted, and either party might be considered 
as saying to the other : 

" My commission 
Is not to reason of the deed, but do it." 

Happily, however, better counsels were to prevail at 
Washington. It was soon perceived that the threat of mil- 
itary f fce could liave no effect upon Georgia or her Gover- 
nor; and, fortunately, a resort to arms was not tried. 

The President's Message produced a sensation in Con- 
gress. In the Senate, it was referred to a special commit- 
tee oi five; and, in the House, to a committee of seven." 

sovereign Stati?. under the autjiority of its laws— tliat Statute baviug relation only to private in- 
ilividuals trespassing upon lands in tUe possession of the Indians. The distinction, too, be- 
tween trespasses committed on such lands, claimed by the United States, or by the State, -n-ill be 
obvious to you. You will not neglect, on any occasion requiring it, to assert, in its most 
ample latitude, the right of sovereignty and jurisdiction of the State over all the lands within 
her chartered limits, and, consequently, the absolute right of survey at all times, as necessarily 
appertaining to that sovereignty and jurisdiction."— Ed. 

* In moving its reference, with tlie accompanying documents, in the Senate, Mr. Berrien 
made a spcecli of some length ; and, amongst other things, speaking of a resort to military 
force, said : " If such an exorcise of power may find the color of justification, under existing 
laws, does it not become u?, as the guardians of tho rights of the States, by some clear and 
explicit act of legislation, to take from such an exercise of prerogative the shadow of pretense '( "' 
In the House, Mr. Forsyth was the principal speaker from Georgia. Amongst otiier things, 
be said: "He rejoiced that, at length, the strange circumstances of this case had been pre- 
sented to the House in such a form as to compel the rendering of a solemn decision between 
tlie Executive and the State of Georgia, and that it was called for at this time— not by them, 
for they had been demanding it for years past— but that now the call came from the Execu- 
tive. He could not, however, as a Representative of Georgia, consent to sit and quietly hear 
the charges brought forward in this communication against the authoritie.s of that State. 



488 I.IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

The report of the House committee, (which, with the 
documents appended to it, occupies more than eight hun- 
dred pages of printed matter,) was presented on 3d March, 
and was thoroughly against Georgia. It recommended the 
expediency of procuring " a cession of the Indian lands in 
the State of Georgia," and " that, until such a cession is 
procured, the law of the land, as set forth in the treaty of 
Washington, ought to be maintained, by all necessary con- 
stitutional and legal means." 

On the report being read, Mr. Drayton, one of the com- 
mittee, moved a substitute, recognizing, to the fullest ex- 
tent, the rights of Georgia. " He expressed his readiness 
to discuss the questions, but preferred not to do so then." 

The report of the Senate committee, presented on 1st 
March, although not so elaborate, took a conciliatory view 
of the questions, and deprecated, in such cases, " the resort 
to force," which, it said, " would be alike vain and nuga- 
tory." It concluded with recommending the following 
resolution : 

" Resolved, That the President of the United States be 
respectfully requested to continue his exertions to obtain, 
from the Creek Indians, a relinquishment of any claim to 
lands within the limits of Georgia." 

As Congress adjourned on the 3d of March, nothing 
farther was done in the premises ; and, indeed, the whole 
question was about to be settled speedily and peaceably. 

On the 31st of January, two days after the date of his 
letter by Lieut. Yinton, the Secretary of War wrote, as 
follows, to Col. Crowell : 

" Since my letter to you, of 29th inst., the Department 
has had information submitted to it, which appears to be 
entitled to respect, that, on a proper representation being 
made to the Chiefs, of the peculiar state of things as they 
now exist in regard to the remainder of their lands within 
the limits of Georgia, they will not object, for a suitable 
moneyed consideration, to sell. This information, and 

They had done nothing which violated the Constitution of the country. He xvnuld say this in 
the face of the Executive." The Senate Committee consisted of Messrs. Benton, B-^rrien, Van 
Buren, Smith, of S. C, and Harrison : the House Committee consisted of Messrs. Edward 
Everett, Powell, Cocke, Drayton, Whittelsey, Lawreuce and Buckner,— ^Ed. 



Chap. XII.] PROMISED PACIFICATION. ' 489 

whicli is from a source of great respectability, is, in sub- 
stance, that the Indians would sell this remaining portion 
of their lands within the limits of that State, if they were 
assured of a prompt and suitable compensation. I therefore 
enjoin it on you, as a duty of great importance, to adopt such 
mode as may seem in your discretion to be best, to obtain 
their consent to relinquish their hold upon these pine bar- 
rens, which can be of no value to them ; and thus secure 
that state of quiet, which it is so much the desire of the 
Executive to realize. On ascertaining the views of the 
Chiefs, you will communicate them to the Department ; and 
also, at the same time, the amount of the consideration 
money which they will be willing to receive for those lands." 

The publication of the foregoing letter presented to Gov. 
Troup the occasion for writing the following, which is 
amongst the noblest of his many noble productions. It 
was published, immediately, by the Georgia Delegation, 
through the columns of the ]N"ational Intelligencer, and 
must have had a happy effect in tranquilizing the public 
mind on the subject of Georgia's Indian difficulties. How 
wide of the mark was the observation of the editor of Niles' 
Weekly Register, on republishing this letter, when he said : 
" We shall only say, for the present, that, if Gov. Troup 
has heen right, this Union is held together only by a roj)e 
of scmd, and is not worth an effort to preserve it !" 

Executive Department, Geoegia, \ 
MiUedgeville, 21525 Feb., 1827. J 
Gentlemen : I was glad to learn, by the mail of to-day, 
that measures have been taken by the President, subse- 
quently to the communication of the Secretary of War, of 
the 29th ult., to procure the lands left out by the instru- 
ment called the new treaty. I have uniformly urged this 
measure on the General Government, from the moment it 
professed a willingness, contingently, to adopt it, and in no 
part of the correspondence more strenuously than in my 
letter to the SecretaVy of War, of the 26th January, a copy 
of which was transmitted to you by the last mail. It was 
known to me, that a sincere desire to procure them^ accom- 
panied by corresponding efforts, could not fail of success, 
and I had felt both surprise and regret that any reluctance 
had been manifested to have recourse to the necessary 
62 



490 I'lJ^^E OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

measures without delay. The reasons assigned for the post- 
ponement, were, in no aspect of them, satisfactory ; and so 
the President was informed in a candid and amicable spirit. 
You are at liberty to state to the councils before whom 
you represent the interests and rights of this State, what 
has been repeatedly represented to the President himself, 
that the Governor of Georgia has never, at any time, enter- 
tained the idea of resorting to military force to counteract 
measures of the Government of the United States, but on 
the occasion when it was deemed better in honor, in con- 
science, and in duty, to sacrifice every thing we hold dear, 
than unresistingly to submit. On the last occasion, when 
military coercion was threatened, the President was prompt- 
ly and candidly informed of my resolution to meet that 
coercion in a military manner. So far as a determination 
was expressed to resort to the civil process, it was decided 
to resort to the like process to sustain, according to the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, and the Con- 
stitution and laws of the State, the public officers of Geor- 
gia engaged in the execution of their duties under the 
orders directly of its Legislative and Executive authorities 
— an obligation, on our part, enjoined by the very sanction 
which the President, in his late message, refers to, as being 
paramount to any human power, and, of course, equally 
imperative with us as with him. I cannot acknowledge a 
power in the United States, to bring before its judicial tri- 
bunals, for trial, and judgment, and punishment, the 
Governor, or Judges, or Representatives, or other officers, 
as such, acting under the authority of the Constitution and 
laws of the States. "Whilst, therefore, no intention exists 
to resist the civil authority of the United States, I consider 
myself bound to aflbrd to officers of Georgia, acting under 
my orders, all the protection I can, consistently with the 
Constitution and laws ; and I can never admit that wrongs 
done by officers of the United States to officers of the State, 
shall not be inquired into and redressed by the State tri- 
bunals. 

I consider all questions of mere sovereignty as matter 
for negotiation between the States and the United States, 
until the competent tribunal shall be assigned by the Con- 
stitution itself, for the adjustment of them. 

I am not wanting in confidence in the Supreme Court of 
the United States, in all cases falling within their acknowl- 
edged jurisdiction. As men, I would not hesitate to refer 
our cause to their arbitration or umpirage. On an amica- 
ble issue made up between the United States and ourselves, 



Chap. XII.] LETTER TO GEORGIA DELEGATION. 49I 

we might have had no difficulty in referring it to them as 
judges, protesting, at the same time, against the jurisdiction, 
and'saving our rights of sovereignty. If the Cfnited States 
vf ill, with or without the consent of Georgia, make a ques- 
tion before the Supreme Court, it will be for the Govern- 
ment of Georgia ultimately to submit, or not, to the decision 
of that tribunal. But, acccording to my limited concep- 
tion, the Supreme Court is not made, by the Constitution 
of the United States, the arbiter in controversies involving 
rights of sovereignty between the States and the United 
States. The Senate of the United States may have so con- 
sidered it, because it has been proposed to make that hon- 
orable body itself the arbiter and umpire l)etween them. 
Tlie States cannot consent to refer to the Supreme Court, as 
of right and obligation, questions of sovereignty between 
them and the United States, because that Court, being of 
exclusive appointment by the Government of the United 
States, will make the United States the judge in their own 
cause. This reason is equally applicable to a State tribunal. 
Hence, the difficulties likely to arise even by a resort to 
the civil process ; and thus you will perceive how infinitely 
preferable it is to carry into efl^ect immediately the meas- 
ure contemplated by the instructions to the Agent. 

It is indeed to be lamented, that a person so well known 
here for his unfitness, should have been charged with such 
an office ; but this very knowledge will make the failure, if 
the failure happen, not our fault, but the fault of his em- 
ployers. 

Of all the wrongs wantonly and cruelly inflicted, none 
have been borne with more patience than the charge of 
seeking a dissolution of the Union. My intentions have 
been to cement and perpetuate it, by preserving, inviolate, 
the riglits of the parties to the compact, without which the 
compact would be of no value ; and to this end 1 have un- 
ceasingly labored. Time may probably disclose that a very 
imperfect judgment had erred in the adoption of the best 
means ; but the intentions will remain the same, and He 
who must finally judge, will certainly not mistake them. 
/v^IIoping that the President will not fail in the contem- 
plated negotiation, aud that the matters in diftOTcnce may 
be speedily and amicably adjusted to the entire satisfaction 
of the parties in controversy, I have not hesitated to make 
you this frank disclosure and explanation, that you may use 
•^it, at your discretion, to promote the peace aud Iiarmony 
\ • hich ouo'ht ever to subsist between the States and the 



492 I'lI'E OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XII. 

United States, and in wliicli I assure you none can feel 
deeper concern than 

Tours, very respectfully, 

G. M. Tkoup. 
The Honorable Senators and Representatives 
from Georgia, in Congress of tlie 
United States. 

[1827.] On the lirst Monday in May, elections for county 
officers were held in the new counties laid off from the 
lands ceded by the treaty of the Indian Springs ; and, the 
surveys having been completed, the Lottery was carried 
on with so much expedition, that the Georgia Journal, of 
22d May, announced the organization and settlement of the 
new country. What had been a savage wilderness, was 
now becoming a garden ; and although Gov. Troup's term 
of office expired before the recognition, by the discon- 
tented Creeks, of the title of Georgia to all their lands 
within her limits, yet this was accomplished b}"- Articles 
of Agreement concluded with them at the Creek Agency 
on the 15th of ITovember, 1S27, and which were duly 
ratified on the 4th of March, 1828. 

By these articles, it was expressed, that " they, the chiefs 
and headmen aforesaid, agree to cede, and they do hereby 
cede, to the United States, all the remaining lands now 
owned or claimed by the Creek Kation, not heretofore 
ceded, and which, on actual survey, may be found to lie 
within the chartered limits of the State of Georgia." [For 
these Articles, in full, see vol. 7 of United States Statutes 
at Large, pages 307, 308 and 309.] 

The following letter will properly conclude this chapter : 

MiLLEDGEviLLE, Feb. 24th, 1827. 
My Dear Sir : It was impossible for me, consistently 
with my views of right, to acquiesce in any of the meas- 
ures proposed to be adopted by the General Government. 
It never was my intention to resist the civil process by a 
military force, unless they nrst resorted to a military force 
to enforce it. It always was my intention, when they re- 
solved to proceed cimliter^ to give our officers all the pro- 
tection which our civil magistracy could afford them under 



Chap. XII.] LETTER TO DR. DANIELL. 493 

the Constitution and la-\"s. Our magistrates are bound to 
extend this protection, so far as it is not inconsistent with 
the Constitution of the U. S. The Constitution of the U. 
S. would not authorize an Act of Congress which would 
make the public ofScers of the State answerable to their 
judicial tribunals. The Act of Congress, referred to by 
the President, cannot, either in its letter or according to its 
intent, embrace such officers ; and of this our own judicial 
tribunals are competent judges. What would be our situ- 
ation, if the public officers were answerable exclusively 
to the judicial tribunals of the U. S., under any Acts of 
Congress which would make them criminals before such 
tribunals ? — and what difference is there in this respect 
between the Governor, or Judges, and a surveyor? The 
President himself acknowledges, in his message, that the 
surveyors are not to be viewed as individuals, but as 
agents of a sovereign State, acting in obedience to au- 
thority which they believe to be binding on them. No 
State can have, rightfully, any claims to sovereignty, 
which makes its officers dependent for their protection, 
in the discharge of their duties, on the power of another 
State. I assure you, my dear friend, I have made as much 
of concession on this subject as I thought any of our friends 
could reasonably ask of me. Those at Washington have 
been extremely anxious about the measures which might 
be taken here ; and I have endeavored, so far as propriety 
would permit, not to commit them by any of an odious or 
censurable character. I trust that the real friends of the 
country will nowhere so consider them. If they do, I 
will lament it, because it has been on their account that I 
have been particularly cautious to avoid it. 

Pemember me affectionately to the family, and particu- 
larly to my little friend. Tell him that I might have been 
to see him before this, but for John Quincy Adams. 
Yours, very affectionately, 

G. M. Tkoup. 
Dr. -Daniell. 



494 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XIII. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Retirement of Governor Troup from the Executive Chair. — His 
last Anmtal llessage. — Declines a Public Entertainment at 3IH- 
ledgcville, and a Public Pinner at Savannah. — Election to the 
United States Senate, in 1828. — Course in Congress. — Political 
opinions, &c. — His resignation and final retirement from pub- 
lic life. 

With the exception of the events ah-eady noticed, the 
year 1827 was prolific of not much of interest in the his- 
tory of Georgia. In March, Governor Troup received 
official notice of the adjustment of the claims of Georgia 
for payment of the troops that performed military services 
against the Indians in the years 1792, 1793 and 1794— a 
measure that had been urged for many years, before Con- 
gress, by himself and others of the Delegations from 
Georgia. 

As soon as it was certainly known that Governor Troup 
would, under no circumstances, permit the use of his name 
in connection with the succeeding canvass for Governor, 
the public generally looked forward to Mr. Forsyth as his 
successor in that high office. Col. Duncan G. Campbell, 
whose name has been so frequently mentioned in connec- 
tion with the Indian treaty of 1825, and one of the noblest 
men in the State, was brought forward by his friends, for 
the office, but he formally retired from the contest; and 
Capt. Matthew Talbot, who was then announced as a can- 
didate, died before the election ; so that Mr. Forsyth was 
chosen, with hardly a show of opposition. 

On the 20tli of October, a meeting of citizens of Mil- 
ledge ville was held, with the view of tendering to the 
retiring Governor a public entertainment. To the letter of 
the committee, in which they spoke of the " personal re- 
gard" of the citizens of Milledgeville, the " high estima- 
tion" in which they held his " official conduct," and the 



Chap. XIII.] OFFERED ENTERTAINMENT. 495 

" auspicious results, for the public good," to wliicli lie had 
brought his measures, " under every difficulty and embar- 
rassment," he returned the following answer : 

MiLLEDGEviLLE, Octobcr 25th, 1827. 

Gentlemen : I take the earliest opportunity to acknowl- 
edge the receipt, (last evening,) of your note of the 22nd 
inst., and to ask the favor of you^ — whilst you return my 
grateful thanks to my friends of Milledgeville for the unde- 
served testimony of their esteem and approbation, which it 
conveyed — to make known to them my resolution to decline 
the honor so generously intended. It is enough that they 
shall have been pleased to consider me worthy of such tes- 
timony ; and my regrets at parting with them Avould only 
be increased in the degree in which they should, to the last 
hour, have increased their kindness to me. 

Accept for yourselves, gentlemen, the expression of my 
sincere friendship and highest consideration. 

G-. M. Tkoup. 
Messrs. Camak, Lamar and 
Boykin, Committee. 

The Legislature convened on the 5th of November. 
Hon. Thomas Stocks was re-elected President of the Sen- 
ate, and L'by Hudson, Esq., Speaker of the House. On 
the 6th, the Governor sent in, to each House, the following, 
being his last Annual Message, which is considerably 
abridged for want of space : 

Executive Depaktment, Georgia, ] 
MilUdg&mlle, Nov. QtJi, 1827. i" 

Fellow-Citizens : Li making known to you the events 
of the passing year, it is equally my duty to communicate 
those which give pain as those which afford pleasure, so 
that, without concealment or suppression, all may be em- 
bodied in the history of the times — our successors will take 
counsel from them, and the experience of the past will be 
equally profitable, whether it furnish examples of good 
to be imitated, or of evil to be avoided. 

Before the close of the last session of the Legislature, 
hope was indulged that the controversy between the Gov- 
ernment of this State and that of the United States, was 
happily terminating : and so indeed to all appearances it 
was. The surveys of the recently acquired territory, so 
long resisted, had proceeded with little or no interruption — 



496 l^IFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XIII 

the last of tliem were about to be completed — the Indian 
irritation had exhausted itself in a few demonstrations of 
hostility ; and when calmness and tranquillity had succeeded 
to excitement and clamor, and nothing remained to satisfy 
the Indian for his imaginary wrongs, but a trifling con- 
sideration in money, the Executive Government at Wash- 
ington seized the occasion as a fit one to denounce the 
Executive of Georgia as the violator of the faith of treaties, 
and the lawless invader of Indian rights ; to forbid the 
prosecution of the surveys, and to threaten the employment 
of military force to coerce obedience to its commands ; a 
menace, which, without being unprecedented on the part of 
that Government, was yet so ill-timed and unexpected, 
that but one reception and but one treatment could be 
given to it. The documents, herewith transmitted, will 
disclose the manner of that reception and treatment ; the 
message of the President to Congress, communicating this 
measure, left no doubt as to its motives and its objects. 
The councils and people of Georgia were to be subdued, 
at all events, into a recognition of the validity of the 
instrument called the new treaty ; by civil process, if civil 
process wonld answer ; by military force, if it would not ; 
indeed, by all means civil or military, as enjoined by a su- 
peradded obligation, (to use the language of the Presi- 
dent,) even higher than that of human authority. It could 
not be seen why, under a. Government of laws, the civil re- 
medy might not suffice, being, if not so prompt, at least 
ample and appropriate ; or why, if resorted to at all, it 
should not be exclusively depended on. The alternative 
of a resort to the military, on failure of the civil remedy, or 
the resort to both, concurrently, for the redress of the same 
wrong, is not the theory, and has not been, hitherto, the 
practice of this Government ; whenever it shall become so, 
there will be no longer any difference, in substance, be- 
tween our own Constitution of Government and that of the 
most arbitrary and despotic. It was impossible to doubt, 
therefore, from the unconstitutional character of the men- 
ace, from its unreasonableness, and from the appalling con- 
sequences which must inevitably follow its execution, that 
the temper which dictated it was hostile to Georgia, and bent 
on her humiliation or destruction. The councils of Geor- 
gia could never recede, without the most degrading humili- 
ation, from the positions taken in support of the treaty of the 
Indian Springs ; it was the professed object of the menace 
to produce that recession ; and it was obviously better for 
Georgia to run the hazard of l)eing stricken from the roll 



Chap. XIII. ] ANNUAL MESSAGE OF 1827. 49f 

of States, than by a passive submission to surrender, witli' 
important interests and essential rights, what was infinitely 
more important and more essential, character; but other 
rights and interests than those of Georgia were concerned. 
The doctrine assumed in justification of the menace, involved 
the rights of all the States ; it asserts the broad power for 
the Executive of the General Government, in any contro- 
versy between a State and the United States, to decide the 
right and wrong of that controversy, promptly, absolutely 
and finally, without appeal, and to enforce such decision by 
the sword; a power most awful, tremendous, and unnatural, 
and not given by the Constitution even to the Congress. 
In such a contest, Georgia could make no sacrifice too dear, 
because she contended in a just and righteous cause, not 
for herself alone, but for all the States, whose honor, dig- 
nity and independence were alike at stake. Happily for 
the country, the enforcement of t}iis measure has not been 
as yet attempted ; whether on reconsideration it has been 
yielded to more deliberate suggestions and more prudent 
counsels, or decided as wholly indefensible, and therefore 
impracticable, or reserved for some other and future occa- 
sion, is not known to me, and can only be coDJectured ; it is 
reasonable, at least charitable to conclude, that, what in 
this respect ought to be done, has been done, and that wis- 
dom and moderation can find no amends for the calamities 
of a civil war, in the transfer from Georgia to the Indians 
of a comparatively worthless fraction of territory, which, 
but for the principle involved, this Government would not 
deign to make a subject of angry contention with that of 
the United States. 

I One of the paragraphs, here omitted, refers entirely to 
the extinguishment of the title to Cherokee lands, and is 
similar to views presented in the Annual Message of 1826 ; 
the other omitted paragraph refers to the memorial of the 
preceding Legislature to the President, on the same sub- 
ject.] 

Connected with other subjects of disagreement with the 
Government of the United States, is that of the dividing 
line between Florida and this State, directed to be run and 
, marked by several resolutions of the Legislature. The con- 
currence of the General Government being necessary to 
the perfection of this measure, it was repeatedly invited 
and eventually obtained. A highly respectable gentle- 
man, and late Governor of Virginia, Thomas M. Kandolph, 
6>\ 



498 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap, XIII. 

•liaviug been appointed the Commissioner on the part of the 
United States, and Thomas Spalding, the Commissioner on 
the part of Georgia, they proceeded in a spirit of harmony 
and concert to the execution of their trust ; and I am happy 
to inform you, that, without bringing their labors to a 
termination most desirable, they closed them with no inter- 
ruption of that spirit ; on the contrary, with an improve- 
ment of it corresponding to the intelligence, patriotism and 
liberal sentiments which distinguish them. 

[A portion of this paragraph is omitted ; but it is be- 
lieved that the concluding part embodies all that is neces- 
sary to the understanding of Gov. Troup's views on the 
subject of the line between Georgia and Florida.] 

If the point established by Ellicott, liad, by the Commis- 
sioners of the United States and Georgia, been found to 
coincide with the head or source of the St. Mary's, the 
Commissioner of Georgia would have been instructed to 
proceed. It was ascertained that they did not coincide, and 
his progress was accordingly arrested. You will observe 
that the first question presenting itself for settlement be- 
tween the two Governments, is, whether the point arbitrarily 
agreed on by Ellicott and the Spanish Commissioner as the 
head of the St. Mary's, now ascertained not to be the head 
even of the stream pursued by Ellicott, shall be considered 
as the true head under the treaty of 1795. The other and 
only remaining question, will be, which is the true source 
or head of the St. Mary's. To enable you to act under- 
standingly on these questions, as well as to afford some 
satisfaction to the Government of the United States, which 
must undoubtedly revise its proceeding, I had instructed 
a competent Agent, the same who acted as the Surveyor 
and Artist under the Commissioners, and who approved 
himself worthy of their highest confidence, to proceed to 
an examination of the several branches of the St. MarA^'s, 
for the purpose of ascertaining, by actual admeasurement, 
the true head or source of that river. The correspondence 
and documents on this suliject, together with his report, are 
submitted. It will bo seen that of the three branches 
forming the St. Mary's, viz.: the iSTorthern, Western and 
Southern branches, the Southern is not only the longest by 
two or three miles, and having a direction corresponding 
most naturally with the general course and disemboguement 
of the river, but discharges eight times more water than 
either of the other branches, and one third more than both 



CiiAP. Xril.] ANNUAL MESSAGE OF 18-27. 499 

of tlieui united, including various other tributary streams 
— that, of the three, the JSTorth branch, viz : that pursued 
by EUicott, is the most inconsiderable, discharging, in pro- 
portion even to the Western branch, as two to three, and, 
in proportion to the Southern branch, as five to forty-three ; 
and indeed that it is even more inconsiderable than' another 
stream, (the Alligator,) soutli of it, and running between it 
and the Western branch. If these facts are confirmed 
to the satisfaction of the Government of the United States, 
the conclusion will be irresistible, even by itself, that we 
must follow, not the error or mistake of Ellicott, but the 
language of the treaty ; not the point arbitrarily deter- 
mined as the head of the St. Mary's, but the true head ; 
and that the true head or source of the St. Mary's is to be 
found, not at the extremity of the N"orthern, but at the 
extremity of the Southern, branch ; and that from this 
point the line must be run, according to the letter of the 
charter of Georgia, of the treaty of '83, of the treaty of '95, 
and of the Constitution of Georgia, This detail, so inconsist- 
ent with the generalizing character of a message, will find 
an apology in the extreme reluctance which I feel to open 
a new controversy with the Government of the United 
States — the great delicacy of the question, (being one of 
boundary,) — the extent of territory, (more than two thous- 
and square miles,) which may be involved in it, and the 
obvious propriety, therefore, in stating the question for 
the first time, to state it iairly and fully. 

It gives me great pleasure to inform you that j'ecent acts of 
the General Government, and of its diflferent departments, 
bespeak a return to good feelings, and give an earnest of 
future good understanding, which it has been the sincere 
desire, as it is tlie duty, of this Government, to cultivate. 
Our militia claims, so constantly and sedulously, but un- 
availingly, urged before that Government for twenty or 
thirty years, have been recognized, and, under circum- 
stances, warranting the belief that some grains of preju- 
dice had mingled Vv-ith the former repeated considerations 
of them, and that nothing was wanting to a prompt acknowl- 
edgment of their justice at all times, but calm, dispassion- 
ate and impartial investigation. Tliey are in a course of 
liquidation and settlement. 

[The part of the message, here omitted, relates to expen- 
ses of military expedition for defence against Indians, and 
expenses of running and marking Georgia and Florida line.] 



500 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XIII. 

Among the various violations of the Constitution of the 
United States, the people of the Southern States have 
lately been made to feel and to complain of that prominent 
one which has taken from the States the general guardian- 
ship over the labor and industry of the people, which, it 
was supposed, exclusively belonged to them, and which, it 
is believed, they never have voluntarily relinquished. It 
is in the exercise of tliis guardianship that the Congress 
proceed, from session to session, to tax one portion of tlie 
community, not interested in a particular branch of in- 
dustry, to sustain another portion interested in, and 
carrying on, that branch. Disregarding the liberal prin- 
ciples which would leave industry free to seek its own 
employment, and returning to the benighted policy long 
practiced by other nations, but now abandoned and aband- 
oning by all enlightened ones, it claims an absolute domin- 
ion over it, to fetter, to restrain, to encourage, to prohibit, 
to cause it to take any or every direction — 'thus substituting, 
for the natural order of things, the artificial system of the 
darker ages. The power, which, in raising revenue or 
regulating commerce, incidentally protects manufactures, 
or encourages the fabrics which are indispensable to the 
national defence, is a very different power from that 
claimed by the Federal Government, to protect by any 
means, directly or indirectly, all or any of them, than which 
a more distinct substantive and important power could not 
be given by any constitution to any government. It is in 
vain that they ask for the grant of this mighty power to 
Congress. It is in vain we plead the cruelty of taking 
from the small profits of agriculture, to increase the large 
profits of manufactures. We are answered, from year to 
year, by an amended tarifl:', augmenting the tribute and 
multiplying the exactions. ISTay, more : as if the Congress 
lacked vigor and animation for the work', a combination of 
States exclusively interested in perpetuating these abuses, 
resolve themseves into a body unknown to the constitution, 
and dictate to the Government at Washington the kind 
and aniount of tax which the people of other States shall 
pay ; so that we may soon have to ask ourselves, which is 
the Government of the United States, the assembly of 
States which passes the edict of taxation, or the authorities 
of more regular and constitutional appointment which 
receive it as law and order its registration. I recommend 
to you the adoption, without delay, of a firm remonstrance 
to the Congress against this system of usurpation, injustice 
and oppression. You vail address yourselves, I know, to 



Chap. XIII.] ANNUAL MESSAGE OF 1827. 501 

a formidable government, having the power, tor certain 
purposes, over the purse and the sword, and now claiming 
and exercising the power to direct the national industry 
and national improvement, without limitation — in short 
the absolute masters of the fortunes of twelve millions of 
people. But you can 3^et speak in the language of truth, 
if not in the spirit of freemen. Your complaints may be 
unheeded. If they should be, I recommend to you to 
address yourselves to the States having common interest 
with yourselves, and to suggest the expediency of concur- 
ring in a non-consumption agreement to bo carried into effect 
by all the means which are constitutionally given to tlieir 
respective Legislatures. It is painful to contemplate the 
consequences which must follow. That government, whose 
parental duty it is make us all friends and keep us so, is 
straining its faculties to fasten upon the country a system 
which cannot fail to set one part of it in hostile array against 
the other. In self-defence, we are first driven to a non-con- 
sumption, which, in the end, must prove a non-intercourse, 
and, as a necessary consecjuence of that, to the cultivation 
of more friendly relations with foreigners, who, supplying 
our indispensable wants, at least so long as the General Gov- 
ernment suffers them to be supplied, will take tlie place of 
our own countrymen, in our feelings and affections, leaving 
nothing for them but bitterness and heart-burnings. We 
are not unwilling to give to our own countrymen the same 
profits we give to foreigners, provided they are fairly 
and constitutionally earned. It is the forced consumption 
of an article, unconstitutionally enhanced in price, w^hich, 
like the forced consumption of tlie tea, we resist. All things 
being equal, we are not unwilling to consume the fabrics 
of our own country, and so far to encourage the fabrica- 
tors ; but v/e protest against the artificial encouragement 
given at our expense, when we are made to pay, not only 
the tax for that encouragement, but to lose the trade in our 
staple, which affords the (?hly means of paying it. It is 
not to be expected that foreign nations will long continue 
to i-eceive our raw material, if we refuse to receive their 
manufactures: and we are not used to that despotism which 
would constrain us, whether for or against our interest, to 
manufacture for ourselves against our inclination. 

Conscientiously believing that the Government of the 
United States is not conducted according to the principles 
of the Constitution — that powers are claimed and exercised 
by it, in derogation of those principles, and that in practice 
it is virtually a consolidated government, and therefore 



502 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XIII. 

essentially ditferent. from that formed and designed to be 
formed by the convention of '87, I wonld recommend to 
you, at the same time, to address a respectful and affection- 
ate memorial to your sister States, reqiiestins; them to unite 
with you in all constitutional and legitimate measures to 
bring back the Government to the pure principles of Mr. 
Jefferson's administration, which are the true principles of 
the Constitution. It is a subject of sincere congratulation, 
that, notwithstanding your temptations have not been less 
than others', you remain uncorrupted by the assumed 
powers of the General Government over the Internal Im- 
provement of the country. Other States which have 
surrendered this birthright, will find no compensation in 
the promised equivalent, as principle has never yet found 
its value in the weight or measure of the precious 
metals. 

[A part of tiie message, here omitted, refers exclusively 
to Internal Improvement, and will be found copied into the 
Eighth Chapter of this work. The next thirteen para- 
graphs, referring to a Court of Errors, to tlie Penitentiary, 
reports on defects in the Penal Code, the Finances of the 
State, State Treasury, the University, Academies, the 
faults of the Militia system, encouragement of Agriculture, 
to Banks, and some matters of temporary interest, are here 
omitted.] 

Retiring from oliico, after lour years administration of 
the public affairs, it would have given me pleasure to con- 
gratulate you on the safety of the Republic, the flourishing 
condition of the country, and, above all, on the union and 
happiness of the people. That the Republic is yet safe, 
and that the country is still prosperous, we are indebted 
more to Divine Providence, than to our own merits. That 
the strifes and contentions of party have scarcely ceased to 
distract the public mind, to enwbitter social intercourse and 
impair the energies of society, we owe to the weakness and 
perverseness of human nature. The boisterous passions, 
the offspring of political dissensions, and in the con- 
flicts of which reason is suspended, are not to be allayed 
on the instant, but by Him who can stay the tempest 
and bid the waves be still. 'No matter what the perils — 
no matter what the calamities which beset the countrj^, 
experience has proven that in all countries these disas- 
trous passions seek only a selfish gratification, regardless 
of the public interest. In our own, they have had their 



Chap. XIII.] UTS RETIREMENT. 503 

ferocious march, and their guilty triumphs. Formidable at 
the begiuning, and fostered by events, they harrassed tlie 
progress of this administration under its greatest trials, and 
embarrassed its councils at every step. It is well that little 
could be claimed from abilities so moderate under circum- 
stances so adverse. We may be content and thankful, that 
if nothing has been won, everything has not been lost — 
that the exasperations of the struggle are subsiding, and 
that, in the prospect before ns, there is nothing so discour- 
age or dismay. You have, therefore, fellow-citi,?ens, every 
motive, as men, and every obligation, as Christians, to banish 
discord and to cultivate peace — to discard the passions 
which become children more than men — to separate your- 
selves from names, the best of which are comparatively 
worthless, and attach yourselves to principles, which are 
unchangeable, and which cannot fail you in your utmost 
need : in line, to think and act as brethren of the same 
family, allied by a common interest and a common destiny, 
of which the universal Parent will be the guardian and 
protector. It is the best, as it is the last, advice I can 
give ; and, returning to private life, I invoke the blessing 
of God upon our country, and bid you larewell. 

G. M. Troup. 

The inauguration of Governor Forsyth took place on the 
7th of IS'ovember. Tlio following is an extract from his 
inaugural address : 

"The judgment formed of everj^ adiidnistration, is the 
result of a comparison with that whieli immediately pre- 
ceded it. Difficult, indeed, is the path before me, when the 
public mind is occupied, and will long continue to be 
so, by the recollection of the zeal, the fidelity and the 
success with which the Government has been administered 
by my respected and fortunate predecessor.'' 

The Georgia Journal, of 12th jSTovember, said : " Few 
men have retired from office, under more flattering circum- 
stances, than Gov. Troup. He has, certainly, during the 
four years of his service, had more difficulties to contend 
with than any of his predecessors ever had, not even ex- 
cepting Gen. James Jackson."' 

After speaking of his trials and his triumphs, it added : 
" He left town, on Thursday last, for his private residence 



504 LII'E OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XIII. 

in Lanrens County. It was proposed that a company of the 
young men of Milledgeville and the neighboring Counties, 
should escort him some distance from town ; but this ar- 
rangement was abandoned, at his request. His friends, 
wlio were members of tlie Legislature, and strangers that 
were in town, of whom there were many, called in parties, 
at his lodgings, on Wednesday evening, and took their 
leave. And, on Thursday morning, a large number of 
the citizens of Milledgeville met at La Fayette Hall, and 
proceeded in a body to Mrs. Jenkins', for the same purpose. 
They were all received with kindness and cordiality ; and 
they left him, expressing their regret at the separation 
which was about to take place." 

Having visited Savannah, in February, 1828, the com- 
pliment of a public dinner was tendered him. In soliciting 
his acceptance, the committee, composed of personal and 
political friends, said : 

" Your fellow-citizens feel assured that they have strong 
and peculiar claims upon your indulgence, as your public 
career commenced among them; and, during its continu- 
ance, has ever met with their warm and uuqualiiied ap- 
probation." 

From his letter, dated 6th February, declining the invi- 
tation, the following extract is made : 

" On each occasion of revisiting your city, in which 1 
had been reared from earliest infancy, I Iiave felt mj^self 
at home ; and it would have been most gratifying to me, if 
it had seemed most appropriate to yon, to have been treat- 
ed rather as a friend, which I am, than as a public man, 
which I am not. Born to many sorrows, I have sought con- 
solation here, under every afflictive dispensation, and have 
found it in warm and generous bosoms, in which the most 
delicate sensibilities have been united to the most manly 
virtues. You must feel, therefore, hov,^ reluctant I have 
been in failing to receive your wishes as commands. The 
approbation of my public conduct is of the highest value 
to me, because it forces the conviction that that conduct 
has been right."'"" 

The Georgian added : " It will bo seen from his very feeling reply to the committee, that 
Col. Troup has declined the mai-k of respect tendered him by his fellow-citizens. It would 
have been, judging from the subscription list, the largest public dinner given here for many 
years."— ,Ed. 



Chap. XIII.] ELECTION TO U. S. SENATE. 505 

One year after liis retirement from the Executive office, 
Gov. TroTip was, without solicitation on his part, elected 
to the Senate of the United States, for the full term to 
commence on the 4th of March, 1829. His election oc- 
curred on the 5th of jN'ovemher, 1828, and without opposi- 
tion. Out of 183 votes cast, he received every vote but 
15 ; and was, consequently, elected by a majority of 168 — 
a thing believed to be miprecedented in the history of 
Georgia. In the sketch of Gov. Troup, in White's Statistics 
of Georgia, it is said : 

'•This appointment Avas accepted by him with unfeigned 
regret. Ill health and other circumstances had determined 
him to live in domestic seclusion. It is not generally 
known, that, when apprised of the Legislative intention to 
send him to Washington, he, to prevent it, hastened from 
his home in Laurens, to Miliedgeville, where he arrived 
only a few hours after his election." 

The term for Avhich Gov. Troup had been elected to the 
Senate, was to begin on 1th March, 1829 ; but he was un- 
able to attend the Executive session then held. On 22d 
January, 1829, he wrote to a friend : 

" Letters received from Washington, express a wish that 
I would be present there on the 4th of March ; and I may 
attempt it, at the risk of failure. '•" ■''' ■'• "•■■ I am very 
sick of politics and of public men, even more so than in 
body, which has had and still has sickness enough to com- 
plain of; but I will do anything I can to the contribution 
for the public interest, so long as there is a prospect of 
serving it." 

In another letter, of 27th March, to the same friend, 
dated at Darien, after referring again to his health, &c., he 
said, in reference to the inaugural address of the new 
President : 

" I like Gen. Jackson's prologue, much, and will like it 
still better, if time shall prove the plain-dealing and honest 
sincerity of the author," &c., ttc. 

Again, on the 8th of June, he wrote, from Laurens : 

" I have postponed writing, that I might be able to 
give you a favorable account of my health. Hope is 
yet deferred ; and I can only say, in this respect, that a 
04 



506 r^n^'E of George m. troup. [Chap. xiii. 

teasing cough llal•a^^ses, without apparently wearing me 
away ; and, because my strength does not decline, I flatter 
myself, or perhaps the disease flatters me, that my lungs 
are still whole. ''• - ■■ - " The summer will decide 
my fate ; and, if I cannot make myself useful at Washing- 
ton, I will not go there." 

On the 10th August, writing from Milledgeville, he said : 

'' My cough, without being worse, harasses me, and, 
although teasing, has not proved enfeebling." 

The following, to the same friend, deserves a place here, 
as giving, not only an account of his health, hut his views 
on Education. 

Laueea^s, 29th August, 1829. 

My Dear Friend : My case is not a little perplexing and 
embarrassing to me. It may be affection of the lungs, or 
liver, or both, or neither. I am too little versed in your 
science, to trust m_yself with a conjecture. The congli and 
expectorations proceed : as to the former, I cannot say 
there is any thing fixed or settled about it; indeed, it gives 
me no trouble or uneasiness, compared with the hawking 
and spitting, or discharge of phlegm, (viscid,) v/hich keeps 
my throat almost always sore. The cough gives me no 
trouble, at night, and sometimes is of rare occnrrence in 
the day ; the other proceeds quite independently of it. 
They are such symptoms which induce me to believe you 
may be right, when you suppose it a gastric afl^ection, and 
not of the lungs. I am taking your remedy. "'• •■ '-• "• 

Schemes of Education have been multiplying for the 
last twenty years, in every part of the civilized world, 
without public opinion having rested on any one of them 
for a longer time than its novelty lasted. I have not much 
faith that our inventive faculties in this respect will enable 
us to make wiser men than the Greeks and Romans, al- 
though our Christian system may make better ones. Cer- 
tainly, any contrivance which can make a school-room more 
captivating to a child, than a prison-house, must have its 
value ; and, no doubt, the plan of the Infant Schools is the 
best which can be devised. It requires but little experi- 
ence to determine its advantages, and the test is always 
unerring. 

It has never been suggested that one nation had acquired 
a decided superiority over another, in intellectual endow- 
ment, all else being equal, by a peculiar mode of training 
the human mind. Undoubtedly, there are some modes of 



Chap. XIII.] ATTENDANCE AT WASHINGTON. 507 

communicating knowledge, wliicli have preference over 
others ; but itls difficult to believe that at this time of day 
the modes are susceptible of much improvement. More 
cannot be communicated than is known ; and I am much 
inclined to think that as much can be communicated, either 
bv the ancient or modern modes^ as the mind can receive. 
Well organized and disciplined Schools, with good instruct- 
ors, have at all times been able to accomplish this. True, . 
some are sanguine enough to think the mind can be made 
to master every department of human learning, when that 
learning shall have reached its highest perfection ; but we 
remain without the proof. It is probable that no niind 
ever acquired more of toJiat is called knowledge, than that 
of Aristotle, and it was probably far short of even the 
useful knowledge of his time. Pray excuse a treatise on 
Education. ^^ - - ■•' " '■■ •■ •• " " " " " " 
Aflectionately yours, 

- ' G. M. Teoup. 

Dr. Daniel! . 



On the 25th ISTovember, he wrote, from Washington : 
" I arrived safely, yesterday, and in as good condition as 
could have been expected. The route by N'orfolk gave us 
some rest, and we lost no time— the Steamboat making up 
for the tardiness of the Stage. The members assembled 
early and in great number, as if something unusual were 
anticipated, and yet I hear nothing that can cause curiosity 
or anxiety. On Indian affairs and Internal Improvement, 
the President will do as we desire," &c., &c. 

" Pennsylvania will, no doubt, fill the vacancy on the 
Supreme Bench. I am very anxious to get Mr. Cheves ; 
but the prospect is far from flattering. The wishes of the 
State are to be consulted, and the State will probably not 
discover Pennsylvanianism enough in Mr. C. to recommend 
him. They speak of Binney, and Gibson, and Baldwin."'"' 



and, on the 9th, was appointed third on the Military Com- 
mittee, and second on the Committee on Indian Affairs. 
The state of his health was such, during a great part of the 
time he continued in the Senate, as to unfit him for debate. 



* Hon. Henry Baldwin -was afterwards appointed to fill this; vacancy, created Jjy Judgo 
Washington's death. — En. 



508 LIFE OP GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XIII. 

It was probably on leaving Georgia to take his place at 
the session of 1829 — '30, that he expressed a doubt whether 
he would ever return from Washington. On 2l5t Decem- 
ber, he wrote : 

" I can give you no better account of my health, than 
to say it continues very much as when I left you, with the 
exception of increase of cough — -being more troublesome 
by night as well as by day. "■■ " * - '-^ "'• We can 
accomplish nothing for Southern interests, here, unless per- 
haps the removal of the Indians ; and this, if accomplished, 
will be done reluctantly and ungraciously ; or, more pro- 
perly, will be permitted only because it cannot but be 
vainly forbidden. I speak of the Congress ; not of the 
Executive, who is sincerely with us." 

On 8th January, 1830, he again wrote : 

" I will leave this, for Athens, as soon as possible. If 
my health permit,' will return to my duties immediately; 
otherwise, will resign, when I may hope to see you sooner 
than we once expected." 

Again, on 4th March, he vv^rote, from Washington : 

" Having resolved to resign, as I advised you, because of 
the uncertainty of ray being able to return in time for any 
useful purpose, I wrote to our friend B.,'- begging him to 
take my place. The idea was, if the constitutional diffi- 
culty could be removed, to prevail on the Governor to send 
the commission, forthwith ; but he thought, and perhaps 
correctly, that a previous resignation would be necessary, 
which would have consumed too much time for our object. 
So many things occupy me, that I must hasten to beg my 
affectionate remembrance to the family," &c., &c. 

And, on 20th March, he wrote : 

" Those [members of Congress] who are most unprin- 
cipled, form an alliance to cheat the more scrupulous ; and 
they are always a strong majority. The constitution stands 
in ithe way of nobody, and is never spoken of with any 
gravity, except in the way of a rhetoricat flourish. A very 
common argument is held, that if the honest do not turn 
rogues, presently, the plunder will be all gone ; and it is 
not difficult to see how the argument works. Our Indian 
affairs are likely to go well. '••■ "" ''' "' ""'■ Pray re- 

* Judge Berrien, probably, who was then Attorney-General of the U. S. jlr. Forsyth 
was at this time the colleague of Governor Troup ; having been elected in Mr. licrrien's place, 
when the latter entered the Cabinet. — Ed. 



CfiAP. XIII.] JEFFEESON'S BIRTH-DAY. 509 

member me aft'ectionately to Mrs. D. aud the boys. Tell 
the latter that I always think of them, and do not despah- 
of seeino; them once more.'' 



Whilst, however, (.rov. Troiip was unable to take part 
in debate, he was not inattentive to the duties of his sta- 
tion. Probably, a slight improvement in his health, and 
the unwillingness of his friends for his retirement, induced 
him to continue in the Senate. During all this time, and 
until his final retirement from public life, in 1833, it is 
confidentl}' believed that the record of his votes, in the 
Senate, may safely be challenged to show any departure 
from the simplicity and honesty of his Republican faith, 
and those State Rights principles, which never forsook him 
in the most trying times. Although physically too weak 
to attempt a speech, his name was a tower of strength to 
his political friends. This will be shown by what follows. 

The 13th day of April, 1830, the anniversary of the 
birth-day of Thomas Jefferson, was celebrated at "Washing- 
ton City, wnth great eclat. Hon. John Roane, of Virginia, 
presided, assisted by six Vice-Presidents. South Carolina 
having been toasted. Gen. Hayne responded to the senti- 
ment, and, amongst other things, said : 

" On a more recent occasion, GEocaiA, (in every sense, 
our sister,) under the guidance of one of the noblest of 
her distinguished sons, planted upon her borders the stand- 
ard of State Rights, and achieved a great and a glorious 
victory for the good cause. ^Neither denunciations nor 
threats could induce her enlightened and patriotic Chief 
Magistrate to recede from the proud stand he had taken in 
defence of the constitutional rights committed to his charge. 
Public opinion was rallied to his support, liberty triumphed, 
and the Constitution was saved." 

He concluded with offering the following sentiment : 

" The State of Georgia — By the firmness and energy of 
her Troups, she has achieved one great victory for State 
rights ; the wisdom and eloquence of her sons will secure 
her another proud triumph in the councils of the Nation." 

Hon. James M. Wayne, then- a Representative from 



510 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XIII. 

Georgia, responded to this sentiment, in n speecli, from 
wliicli want of space forbids the making of extracts. 

Speaking of the stand which Georgia had taken, even 
" when menaced with military coercion," &c., he said : 

" Oar appeal was heard hj our brethren ; the State tri- 
umphed ; its principles prevailed ; its rights are now fully 
acknowledged, and the cheering response given to the sen- 
timents of the gentleman from South Carolina, assures ns 
that Georgia, in her past relations with the General Gov- 
ernment, stands vindicated and approved by the represent- 
ative democracy of the Union." 

Governor Troup gave the following toast, on the occa- 
sion : 

" The Goveroiment of the United States — With more 
limited powers than the Eepublic of San Marino, it rules 
an Empire more extended than the Koman, with the abso- 
luteness of Tiberius, with less wisdom than Angustus, and 
less justice than Trajan or the Antonines." 

During the session of 1829 — '30, Gov. Troup was gener- 
ally at his post, and always voted as became the principles 
of his whole life. It was during this session that the cele- 
brated debate, on Foot's Resolution, occurred, in which 
General Hayne and Mr. "Webster so greatly distinguished 
themselves. 

This session terminated on 3ist May, 1830. We have 
abundant evidence that his health continued poor. During 
the recess, he was invited to a public meeting and dinner, 
by the friends of State Rights at Columbia, South Carolina. 

In declining the invitation, he wrote, as follows : 

L:\uKEN"3 County, Geoegia, ) 
September Slst, 1830. j 

Gentlemen : Accept my thanks for your polite invita- 
tion to a public meeting and dinner at Columbia, directed 
to Milledgeville. Whether v/ith you on that interesting 
occasion, or not, you have my best wishes for the results of 
the wise counsels and patriotic efforts which you cannot 
fail to carry to the discussion of the topics of the day : they 
are of first importance to the whole Union. 

AVhatever the people of South Carolina, in convention, 
shall resolve for their safety, interest and happiness, will 
be right, and none Avill have the right to question it. You 



Chai'. XIII.] COLUMBIA LETTER. 511 

can cliauge your own government at pleasure ; and, there- 
fore, YOU can throw oif the government of the Union, 
whenever the same safety, interest and happiness require 
it. If ambition and avarice shall make of the Federal 
Government a curse, and the States are to be held to it 
against their will, our condition difiers in nothing from that 
of the Province of Turkey or Persia. The many-headed 
tyrant, in the habitual violation of the Constitution, vaunts 
his love of Union, as if ready to make a burnt-offering of 
his looms and spindles upon the altar of that Union — yet, 
not one jot of concession is made to the prayers and en- 
treaties, which, if offered to the throne of Grace, would be 
received graciously and answered favorably. The cormo- 
rant who fastens and fattens on our substance, may not re- 
lease his hold, so long as wo are the willing subject of its 
remorseless passion. But I do not utterly despair — 'the 
American people will see that the Constitution and Union 
can only be preserved by a return to honesty and justice. 
It is impossible we can be wrong — ours is the cause of 
liberty — of freedom of industry — of the use of the fac- 
ulties of mind and body for all purposes, merely innocent, 
without governmental interference ; opposed to restraints 
and prohibitions and monopolies in every form. If, con- 
trary to expectation, the existing system shall become the 
fixed and settled policy of the country, the Southern States 
must withdraw from the confederacy, cost vvdiat it may. 
No evil is more to be dreaded than a power in the General 
Government to regulate industry — a power which can- 
not with safety be coniided to any government, but with 
the most guarded limitations. Direct taxes for the en- 
couragement of manufactures, would not have been paid 
lor a single year. The five cents a yard on our cotton bag- 
ging, levied for the professed purpose of enabling the West- 
ern States to supply the article on their own terms, when 
the proceeds were to make roads and canals for the same 
States, would have been opposed with a spirit not easily 
alla3^ed. They have been borne, onl}^, because being indi- 
reot^ they are unseen ; and because a portion of the evil 
may be avoided by the non-consumption of those articles 
which are not of tirst necessity. There cannot be a greater 
fallacy than that the Union is' to 1)0 preserved by a power 
in the General Government to coerce the States. The exist- 
ence of sovereignty excludes the idea of force. Ours is a 
Government of "opinion, of consent, of voluntary associa- 
tion — the only guaranty for Union is justice. Justice 
secures good feeling, fidelity, affection ; and nothing but 



512 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XIII. 

justice can secure them. Of what value is that Union 
which is formed of unwilling and reluctant members, who, 
but for the sword suspended over their heads, would fly off 
from the common centre which burns only to destroy ? 

The Constitution, administered according to its letter 
and spirit, can dispense nothing but justice ; and the char- 
acter of the American people is a sufficient guaranty that 
no State would separate from the Union without justifiable 
cause. Regarding the Union as a family compact, the 
members of which can only be kept together by the ptrac- 
tice of strict and impartial justice, it is better that the non- 
contents and the mal-contents should be suffered to depart 
in peace by common consent, than by common consent to 
constrain a reluctant obedience, which, if yielded to-day, 
may be forcibly withdrawn to-morrow. It is the shedding 
of blood which deters us from constitutional resistance to 
unconstitutional laws, and which ought to be postponed so 
long as the faintest hope remains of a returning sense of 
justice. You well know how the same infatuation is con- 
stantly pursuing an interest infinitely more sacred ; the 
unhallowed touch of which Ave would be bound in honor 
to resist, and with a vengeance never to be appeased. But 
pardon so much on these distressing topics, and accept the 
tender of my regard and esteem. ■•• " 

G. M. Troup. 

On 6th October, he wrote to his friend, Dr. Daniell, then 
a member of the Georgia Senate : 

" I cannot ride on horseback, without suffering much in- 
convenience ; the carriage is sufficiently irritating. Since 
my last, my condition is "better. 

" With regard to the Cherokees, I would say, enforce the 
laws strictly — set the Supreme Court at defiance, and 
occupy the mineral country. The last can either be 
worked by the State, or sold, or leased. Make it a high 
crime and misdemeanor, (treason, if you please,) for any 
])erson (no matter who,) within the jurisdictional limits of 
the State, (the chartered limits,) to issue or serve any 
j iidicial pf ocess, which shall, directly or indirectly, call in 

* Ou the 16th of December, 1800, the followiug resolution was offered in the Georgia 
House of Representatives : 

"That the peojile of Georgia disapprove of the political opinions of the Hon. George M. 
Troup, as expressed in his toast at the Jefferson celebration dinner, in Washington Citj', and 
in his letter replying to an invitation to the Columbia dinner." 

The resolution was immediately laid on the table, for tlie remainder of the session, by yeas 
93, nays 31.— Ed. 



Chap. XIII.] LETTERS FROM WASHINGTON. 513 

question the sovereign jurisdictional or territorial rights of 
the State. This system, enforced as it ought to be, will 
soon move the Cherokees. They rely on their Northern 
friends ; and, as soon as they see that to he a broken staff, 
they will surrender." 

He wrote, again, on 2d November : 

" The state of things at Milledgeville, from time to time, 
will be very acceptable. The majority against you, in the 
Senate, is stronger than I anticipated. The horizon is not 
very clear, either at home or abroad ; and I fear poor 
human nature will work its own ruin at last. "■'' - ■-•■ * 

* * "" •" ••■ ""■ •■• ■•• "■ Suffer much pain, at in- 
tervals, and do not know if I can accomplish the journey." 

Governor Troup attended the session of 1830-31. Writ- 
ing, from Washington, on 18th December, after referring 
to the action of the Legislature of Georgia in regard to the 
Cherokee lands, &c., he said : 

" The poor University has met the fate"" anticipated, and 
will never recover so long as party and bigotry have any 
thing to do with it, ""'" ''^ " ■"' "■• " I do not look for 
any modification of the Tariff which would give us gratifi- 
cation. If any happen, it will be in furtherance of the 
system. We begin to rely somewhat upon a salutary 
change in public opinion, of which there are some signs." 

On 4th January, 1831, in another letter, after referring 
to the resolutions of the Legislature of Georgia, requesting 
and enjoining the Governor and other oflicers of the State, 
to disregard the citation, &c., of the Chief Justice of the 
U. S. Supreme Court, in the case of the Indian Tassels ^ 
who had been convicted of murder before the Superior 
Court of Hall county, &c., &c., he said : 

"The result has been hailed by our political friends here, 
as a signal triumph, although it may be feut the onset. It 
is not believed they will venture to proceed in the con- 
tempt." 

In another letter, written o]i 31st January, he said : 

"The relations of public men here are worse than this 
time last year, and as bad as they can be. The President 
is almost the only man who has maintained his position as 
it was," &c.. &c. 

* It is proper to add, that, throe days after the dale of this letter, au Act was passed 
" to provide a permanent additional fund for the support of-' the University, &c., &c.— Ed. 

65 



514 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XIII. 

Speaking of the protective system, he said, in a letter 
dated 11th May : 

" The danger has become imminent, becanse it is evi- 
dent, for the first time, that the entire capital and popula- 
tion of 'New England and other interested States, are 
embodying for the permanency of the system ; and, if 
not resisted, we must be overthrown, horse, foot and dra- 
goons." 

This being the short session, not much of a general 
nature was done in Congress. Governor Troup voted on 
2d February, in favor of granting leave to introduce a 
resolution " that the charter of the Bank of the United 
States ought not to be renewed." Congress adjourned on 
8d March. 

Meanwhile, the health of Governor Troup continued 
feeble. He was able, however, to attend the session of 
1831-32. On 21st January, 1832, he wrote to Dr. Dan- 
iell: 

"Public afi'airs are beginning to occupy more seriously 
the attention of everybody here, as it is seen in how much 
uncertainty they are involved. The present prospect is 
very gloomy, and we can only indulge the hope that 
events may transpire to favor the more desirable results. 
The Tariff party will attempt to reconcile the Southern 
people, by some trifling concession ; which, if it should 
succeed, will rivet the system upon us. Our friends are, 
so far, very decided, and will not be content with anything 
short of justice and equality. For the Bank, there is no 
doubt a majority in both Houses, but not two-thirds ; and 
the better opinion is that two-thirds will be required." 

The following extract from a letter, to the same friend, 
dated 30th May, 1832, will show why Governor Troup took 
no part in debate : 

" I would very gladly have availed myself of your friendly 
suggestion, and for the reason assigned, if it had been pos- 
sible. Frequent occasions have occurred, making it very 
fit and proper, perhaps even useful, that my own opinions 
■should have been expressed; but every essay of that kind 
would prove so distressing to myself and others, that it 
would be quite unwarrantable to attempt it. The least 
effort, in this way, is followed by a fit of coughing which is 
not easily allayed, and which, even in ordinary conversa- 



Chap, XIIL] VIEWS ON THE TARIFF. 515 

tion, has more than once produced a spitting of blood. The 
effects, in relation to myself, would be of no consequence, 
if the object of the effort, on any profitable occasion, could 
be attained ; but I know this to be physically impossible." 

Of the tariff, he wrote, on 2d July : 

" The bill from the House of Representatives, which is 
likely to pass the Senate, is essentially a bill for the fur- 
ther relief of the manufacturers, who will be exempted, in 
a great degree, from the only burthens to which they had 
been subjected under the old system."- 

This was an exceedingly important session of Congress, 
the Bank and Tariff questions being the leading ones. It 
has been already stated, in a note to a previous chapter, 
that Governor Troup voted to sustain the President in his 
veto of the bill to re-charter the Bank oi> the United States, 
having previously voted against the bill itself. At this 
period, he was a cordial supporter of Gen. Jackson's ad- 
ministration ; as may be seen by the following extracts from 
a private letter, written after the adjournment of Congress, 
and dated 29th August, 1832 : 

" Bad health carried me to the Virginia Springs, where, 
having acquired sufficient strength, we took the road by 
the higher country, direct for Athens, whence, (having first 
entered George of the Sophomore Class, and left his sisters 
with him, all in good health,) I proceeded homeward, 
where I arrived, ten days since, not much worse than I left 
the Springs. 

" Have desired much to see you. Every thing, polit- 
ically, is working badly for us, as you may perceive ; and, 
amidst all the diversity of opinions, no rallying point, or 
principle of union, presents, by which the disorder may be 
corrected. - ■'■ ■•• ■•'■ - The cause of nullification is so 
generally connected with hostility to the President, that, 
even if it were more tenable, it would expose to jealousy any 
politician in Georgia who would seem to favor it. General 
Jackson deserves to be supported most liberally by every 
Georgian, and indeed by every Eepublican. 'No man 
would have hazarded more for correct principles." 

* The bUl was passed substantially as it came from the House, but, of course, against the 
vote of Governor Troup. It was entitled " An Act to alter and amend the several Acts laying 
duties on imports," and was approved by the President, on 14th July, 1832. This was one of 
the Acts embraced within the provisions of the South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification of 
24th November, 1832.— Ed. 



516 LIFE OF GEOEGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XIII. 

[1832.] Congress re-assembled on 3d December. Gov. 
Troup was placed second on the Military Committee of the 
Senate, and was made Chairman of the Committee on In- 
dian Affairs. 

On the 10th December, the President issued his celebrated 
Proclamation, having reference to the nullification measures 
of South Carolina ; the party divisions upon which, belong 
to the general history of the country. 

The following letter from Gov. Troup finds its ai^pro- 
priate place here : 

Washington, 13th Jan'y, 1833. 

My Dear Friend : Within a few days, there has been a 
considerable abatement of excitement, and the Executive 
tone has moderated. It is now ascertained that force will 
not be resorted to, tut to repel force*, and that regulars will 
not be employed against citizens. 

The apprehension of civil war, which was for a time 
general, has disappeared before the promulgation of the 
State law, which is seen to allow the merchant to give and 
pay his bond. It now begins to be said, that, as a remedy, 
nullification has failed ; and the manufacturers begin to 
think that reduction may yet be postponed. On this 
question, the Senate is more doubtful than the House. 

In consequence of the repeated suggestions of yourself 
and others, as well as of a late censurable and ill-timed 
State paper, I have given my views and opinions generally. 
As Major Moore, of Oglethorpe, a very worthy patriot, 
was most pressing and mandatory, I have given them to 
him, and in a very familiar, homespun way. They will, 
of course, meet the reception and treatment which every 
thing, of like kind, emanating from myself, has in past 
time, and perhaps with very little favor from any quar- 
ter. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 

Aifectionately, 

G. M. Tkottp. 
Dr. W. C. Daniell. 



* On the 16th of January, Mr. Forsyth said, "he congratulated the Senate, that, not- 
withstanding the threatening appearance, there was no danger to the public, peace. The 
Chief Magistrate pledges himself not to resort to any but defensive force ; and the Senator 
from South Carolina tells us that South Carolina has no desire to use force, unless assailed. 
The hope might be indulged that all these pledges -would be redeemed : if they -were, force 
would not be used." — Ed. 



I 



€nAF. XIII.] LETTERS ON STATE RIGHTS. 517 

The " State paper," to wliicli reference is made above, 
was the proclamation of the President. The letter to 
Major Moore, to which reference is also made above, will 
be found in the Appendix to this volume. On the 10th of 
February, Governor Troup wrote his celebrated letter to 
Major John H. Howard, which is also to be found in the 
Appendix." Had he written nothing else, this letter 
would suffice to place him amongst the foremost men of 
the country. By the last of these letters, it will be seen 
that he was not an admirer of nullification as adopted by 
South Carolina, under the actual circumstances of the 
case, and for the reasons stated by himself. Believing, as 
he did, in the absolute and undivided sovereignty of each 
State, and that Carolina had a right to do as she did, he 
still thought she should have acted in concert with other 
States having identical interests. On 20th Februar}^, he 
wrote to Dr. Daniell : 

" I am much gratified that the letter to Moore gave you 
pleasure. It does not appear to have been received as well 
elsewhere. I see it excepted to by ' Bibb,' in the last 
Recorder^ who I take to be our excellent friend, - * 
""■ " * '"■ . It is in this way that our cause is made 
hopeless. You must fall in with the whim-whams and 
crudities and conceits of every politician on one side, or 
you accomplish nothing for union. This sensitiveness is a 
prominent characteristic of nullification. It has its seat in 
the front of the cranium, and the subject of this infirmity 
reminds you of one in a fit of the gout, who is in dread 
of every thing that approaches his toes." 

During the session of 1832-33, Gov. Troup was frequently 
absent, from severe indisposition. A more excited session 
never was held since the adoption of the Federal Constitution. 
The principles of the Government were sifted to their founda- 
tion, in the debates on the proclamation and the measures 
introduced to meet the crisis brought about by the nullify- 
ing ordinance of South Carolina, and General Jackson's 



* These two letters arc put in au appendix, reluctantlj', and only because the limits 
assigned to this work do not permit their insertion in the large type selected for the body of 
this book. No admirer of Governor Troup's State Rights principles, will fail to read these 
letters attentively. — Ed. 



518 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XIII. 

determination to put down what lie deemed a political 
heresy. Some of the greatest men that ever figured in 
American history, as statesmen and debaters, were in that 
Congress. Calhoun, Clay and Webster were in the Sen- 
ate, besides numbers of others 'who would have adorned 
any deliberative assembly. 

The Revenue Collection Bill, more commonly known as 
the " Force Bill," came up for its engrossment and third 
reading, on 18th February'. Although unable to take any 
part in debate. Governor Troup left his sickbed, and waited 
until nearly midnight, to record his vote against the measure. 
Out of forty Senators who voted, the only negatives were 
George M. Bibb, John C. Calhoun, William R.. King, Willie 
P. Mangum, Stephen D, Miller, Gabriel Moore, Geokge M. 
Troup and John Tyler. On the passage of the bill, on 20th 
February, all the above named Senators were absent, except 
Mr .Tyler, whose voice was the only Nay. Gov. Troup was 
too sick to attend."^ The following letter from him to one 
of the editors of the Georgia Messenger, appertains to 
this part of his history : 

Dapjen, 1st December, 1833. 
Of the misconstructions and misrepresen- 
tations connected with every thing I write, you are not 
insensible ; so that, if I had been vdlfully and deliberately 
mysterious in all things written or spoken, and conspic- 
uously distinguished for ambiguity of purpose and in- 
direction of conduct, all my life, I could not have expected 
any thing worse. Take, for example, the instance to which 
you emphatically call my attention — " the impression is 
attempted to be made that you (I) would have voted for 
the Force Bill of the last Congress, if you (I) had been in 
your (my) seat." 

I went from my chamber to the Caj)itol, at an early hour 
of the afternoon, and, suffering much pain, kept my seat 

* In the debate on this bill, on 19th February, Mr. Poindexter, in a long speech 
in opposition to it, quoting from Gov. Troup's annual message, of 1826, said : "Gov. Troup, 
than whom no man has maintained a more uniform and consistent political career ; than 
whom a more pure and enlightened patriot has never adorned the councils of the countrj' ; 
and who, I rejoice to saj-, is now, as he was while Governor of Georgia, the sincere friend of 
State Rights and constitutional liberty, addressed a message to the Legislature of that State, 
an extract from which I submit, containing reflections well worthy the attention of honor- 
able Senators in their deliberations on the pending question." — Ed. 



Chap. XIII.] LETTER OF RESIGNATION. 519 

until midnight, when / voted against the Force Bill. If 
on my death-hed^ I woidd have Ijeen carried there to vote 
against it / because it presented the strange political phe- 
nomenon of a mere government treating a sovereign State 
as if that State were a corporation or an unlawful assem- 
blage of individuals. The vote was recorded, and jpxib- 
lished in all the newspapers of the day ; and yet it is 

f attempted to make the impression that I would have voted 

for the Force Bill if I had been in my seat. So the world 
goes. 

Your friend, very truly, 

G. M. Tkoup. 

The 22d Congress expired on the 3d of March, 1833. 
Governor Troup never returned to Washington as a public 
man. In ISTovember following, he resigned his seat, and 
bade a final adieu to public employment. 

The following is a copy of his letter of resignation : 

Laueens County, ISTovember Sth, 1833. 
To his Excellency, Gov. Limipkin: 

Sir: In execution of a deferred resolution, I resign my 
seat in the Senate of the United States. Reasons, merely 
personal, it would concern you very little to receive ; and 
others, which are of higher import, belong to my constitu- 
ents, who might not choose to be troubled with them. It 
may suffice, that, if the people of Georgia are as they were, 
another can serve them more usefully ; and, if they are 
not, I would be the last whom they would select to serve 
them at all. 

Your fellow-citizen, 

G. M. Troup. 



520 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XIV. 



CHAPTER XIY. 

Governor Troup in retirement. — Nominated, hy State Rights men, 
for the Presidency . — His political opinions, and views on various 
stibjects. — State Sovereignty. — United States Bank and Inde- 
pendent Treasury. — Course in Presidential contest of 1840. — 
Is opposed to admission of California, and Compromise measures 
of 1850. — Elected a Delegate to the Nashville Convention. — 
Nominated for the Presidency hy Southern Rights Convention in 
Alabama. — Political and private corresjjondence. — Decline in 
health; last sicJcness and death. — Puhlic testimonials to his worth. 
— Summary of his character. — Conclusion. 

On retiring to his home in Laurens, Governor Troup 
lived in as complete seclusion from political affairs, as any 
man, of his commanding position and well known and de- 
cided principles, could. Without political aspirations, he 
was still unreserved in the expression of his opinions on all 
subjects of general interest, and willingly communicated 
them, in writing, to those vdio solicited his views. 

A convention, composed of State Rights members of the 
Legislature, and delegates from various counties in the State, 
assembled at Milledgeville, on the 12th of December, 1833. 
At this meeting. Gov. Troup was nominated for the Presi- 
dency, in the following resolution: 

'''■Resolved, That we recommend to the people of the 
United States, Col, Geokg-e M. Tkoup, as a suitable candi- 
date for the next Presidency. His zealous advocacy of, 
and his hrm attachment to, the principles of State Rights, 
designate him as the individual best calculated to promote 
the Republican doctrines we advocate." 

It was evident that this recommendation was intended 
more as a compliment to Governor Troup, than as the 
expression of a belief that it could be successful. I^othing 
more was done about it. In reference, partly ,to this 
demonstration, he wrote the following : 

Laukens, 1st January, 183-1. 
My Dear Friend : From the information given, and 



Chap. XIV.] THE PRESIDENCY, &c. 521 

desire expressed, in your and other letters, for the publica- 
tion of the political letter,* I have given my consent ; al- 
though I fear it may be construed as a political manoeuvre 
in aid of the nomination — a measure, which, whatever may 
be my own views of its policy, having originated in the 
best feelings and with the best objects, I will say or do 
nothing to thwart. I hope, at the same time, that I will 
not be asked to do anything to promote it. The impossi- 
bility of success does not enter at all into my views of the 
subject; for, under circumstances much more favorable to 
it, my resolution would be the same. I consider it morally 
impossible to bring back the Government to its pristine 
principles ; but that is no good reason that the virtuous 
men of the country should not make an effort. " " ''' 
" '• """ Eemember me, as usual, to all, and believe me, 
Very affectionately, 

G. M. Troup. 
Dr. W. C. Daniell, 

Savannah. 

In July, 1834, Gov. Troup publicly identified himself, in 
feeling, with the State Rights party of Georgia. Being at 
Macon, on his way to the Indian Springs, he was invited to 
a public dinner. In declining the honor, he said, amongst 
other things : " the State Eights party of Georgia have my 
best wishes for their success." 'i' 

This announcement was the occasion of much comment 
by Georgia politicians, and will serve to explain the politi- 
cal part of the following : 

Laukens, 25tli Sept., 1S34. 
My Dear Friend : - ■' ■• * <r ^ q 
•■■ * * "■'■ *, of ■"" ■'•■ ■■ * ■•• , wrote, in 
behalf of *. - * "'■''. * ■■', to know if I 

approved of the prefatory editorial to my Macon letter. 
The letter being dictated in a very friendly spirit, I answer- 
ed, thinking, it might possibly do some good. Not know- 
ing him personally, but understanding his political position, 
I h-eated the matter with mildness and gentleness, but, 

* For this letter, (to Major Howard.) see the Appendix to this volume.— Ed. 

t Such was the influence of his name and character, in Georgia, notwithstanding the 
decided tone of the letter from which the ahore quotation is made, that many of his old 
political associates, although not prepared to go the length of his extreme State Rights views, 
took the name of "Troup Union" men. Personally, he never lost their affections.— Ed. 

66 



523 r^IFK OF riEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XIV. 

nevertheless, with decision. Among other things, ( '"'' ■■'' 
"" "■ ■"■ having expressed his great abhorrence of nullifi- 
cation,) I requested him to say to my old friend, ■"'. ''•. "., 
" that the denial of absolute sovereignty to the States, 
would be more mischievous and ruinous than 10,000 hydras 
to be raised from nullification." How it will take, I do not 
know — as apt to confirm the apostasy as to shake it. They 
force me to write political letters : and have written one to 
Hancock, cautioning, at the same time, '^' ■"' '• ''' " 
and ■■• •■■ "■'■ ■■■ ■■'■, if they hear of fragments from it, 
to challenge the production and publication. Have wa-itten 
another to Talbot, in answer to one from Breedlove and 
Graybill, whom I don't know, but w^ho profess to befriends. 
If they are not, the letter will serve them no purpose. "'' 

Aftectionatelv yours, 

G. M. Teoup. 
Dr. W. C. Daniell, 

Savannah. 

The following is the letter to Messrs. Breedlove and 
Graybill, to which reference is above made. It w' as exten- 
sively published, at the time, as a letter " to some State 
Rights gentlemen in Talbot county :" 

Gentlemen : The States are sovereign, or they are not. 
We prove the afiirmative, by the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, and the Articles of Confederation — let the federal 
party prove the negative if they can. If a State is sovereign, 
it can do any thing — it can nullify any act of Congress, or 
secede ; is subject only to the law of nature and nations, 
which it is bound to respect. This exercise of its sovereign 
power has nothing to do with the Constitution, much less 
with revolution — it is above the Constitution, because it has 
the law of nations for its constitution, and it can have no 
connection with revolution, because, of all acts of human 
power and authority, it is most commanding, peaceable, 
legitimate and sacred. Our opponents involve themselves 
in inextricable difficulty. The Federalists say that the 
powders of sovereignty have been divided between the 
State and Federal Governments — if so, the higher powers 
having been given to the latter, it possesses the greater sov- 
reignty, and on that account must be the judge of its own 
power's, which makes it absolute. And yet the Federalists 
admit that sovereignty resides in the people, by which they 



Chaj>. XIV.] STATE SOVEREIGNTY, &r. 533 

meau the whole people of the United States ; when or how 
they became one people, they cannot explain. The weaker 
among them are divided in opinion ; some saying it re- 
sides in the United States, withont being able to show a 
substantive, distinct and independent being called the 
United States, and capable of receiving sovereignty ; and 
others that the Government is sovereign, because the peo- 
ple have vested their sovereign powers in the Government ; 
as if a Government, a mere agent, were capable of receiv- 
ing sovereign powers. Thus inconsistency follows incon- 
sistency, and contradiction contradiction. If sovereign 
powers could vest in a Government, that Goverment could 
transfer them to any subject capable of receiving them, in 
virtue of that very sovereignty. 

Carolina had a perfect right to do as she did ; but, as we 
do not always wisely what we have right to do, I blamed 
Carolina for not acting in concert with those States having 
identical interests — if she had done so, a certain and 
complete triumph of the Constitution would have been 
the result. 

You perceive, therefore, that tlie denial to a State of 
absolute sovereignty, is a surrender of the whole t[uestion; 
as, in any aspect of it, the Federal Government having the 
higher attributes of sovereignty, can, in no event, be 
checked, or restrained, or limited by a power possessing 
only the minor attributes. 

Very respectfully, gentlemen, 

G. M. Troup. 

The year 1837 is remembered for the severe commercial 
crisis through which the country jjassed. Having been 
invited by the State Rights party of Chatham county, to 
attend the celebration of the 4th of July, of that year, at 
Savannah, and being unable to attend, he wrote a letter, 
dated 30th June, from which the following extract is 
made : 

"In all past time, and in every country, what is called a 
crisis, a panic, an excitement, or any temporary evil, nat- 
ural or artificial, has been seized upon by the friends of 
arbitrary power, to strengthen the arm of Government al- 
ready strong enough. The present state of things, full of 
distress, and moving the strongest passions, is also full of 
danger for posterity, who may wee]) in more sorrow and bit- 



524 LIFE OP GEORGE M. TROFP. [Chap, XIV. 

terness of heart, the doings of its ancestors, the fruits of a 
panic. Be pleased to accept, in the form of a toast, the 
expression of a ho2)e-, an anxious hope, that the State Rights 
party of Georgia, if it cannot limit or restrain, will nevei\ 
directly or indirectly, contribute to increase, the poicer of 
the Federal GovernmzntP 

To a friend, who desired to know his views on the cur- 
rency question. Gov. Troup wrote a long letter,'"- on 16th 
May, 18 iO, which the reader will find in the Appendix to 
this volume. "The use and abuse of his name in connec- 
tion with" the Presidency, had reference to the circum- 
stance of his name having been used in one or more of 
the news-papers in Georgia, for that office, before their con- 
ductors came out in support of Gen. Harrison against Mr. 
Van Buren. 

On 25th July, 1840, he wrote to his friend, Dr. Daniell, 
and said : ' 

" Have been much plagued by political letters, and 
hoped, by abusing everybody, I might rid myself of them; 
but it is not so, and all I can now do is to beg they will not 
publish." 

In the same letter, he expressed a preference for Mr. Van 
Buren over the other party, and added : " but it is only 
between arsenic and hellebore ; and why need we make 
choice, when we can refuse both ? " 

The following letter, to the same friend, (then at Gaines- 
ville,) shows that the writer of it was not indifferent to the 
pleasures of social intercourse, and that he could indulge 
in the sallies of pleasantry : 

Laukens, 15th June, 1841. 

My Dear Friend : Many thanks for your kind invita- 
tion. My brother, the Doctor, proposes to accompany me, 
in July — George probably making a third ; and it is even 
possible my brother llobert will make us count four in all. 
We will not fail to see you, and to remain with you as long 

* The sub-Treasury scliemo, to which this letter refers, was enacted into a law passed 
4th July, 1840, which was repealed 13th August, 1841. The present system of collecting, 
kseping, transferring and disbursing the public revenue, was adopted by Act of Congress, 
passed 6th August, 1846. See 5th and 9th vols. United States Statutes at Large.— En. 



Chap. XIV.] PRIVATE LETTERS. 525 

ciswecau. '■'^ •• * * '^ ■'^" •'■ * 

I am so much afraid, in these Harrisonian clays, of judges, 
sheriffs, bailiffs, and their precepts, that, apart from all other 
motive or consideration, any one of them would as easily 
conduct me to the river Styx as a gaol ; and you know 
gaol or Styx is the alternative — at least, it is so with us, I 
hope better things, in your quarter, than molten lead for a 
man who is not jet entitled to a phice on that side of the 
gulf; and shall content myself with the fare of Lazarus, 
which, as I remember, was a little worse than I have been 
accustomed to under the roof of a gentleman who shall be 
nameless. 

Many kind remembrances to all yours. 

G. M. Teoup. 

To the same friend, he said, on loth September, 1S42 : 
"I had heard something of ■■ •• ''• "•■ ■•, aforetime, 
which prepared me for his present decided attitude. By 
the by, is it not saying something for a good cause, that such 
men cannot follow the lead of their would-be leaders, an-d 
on questions, too, not only leading, but, to their party, es- 
sentially vital? Why cannot our friend "•• •■ '•• -• •••, 
one of the best of men, renounce his Bankism, and suffer 
the real friends of the Southern country to vote for him ? 
The enlightened men, who are opposed to a Bank, believe 
it to be unconstitutional, and most disastrous to Southern 
interests ; and they cannot conscientionsly vote for even 
such a patriot as *." 

Again, on 7tli j^ovcmber, 1842, speaking of the Presi- 
dential question, and of some things that he regarded as 
errors in the Democratic party, he said : 

" You are a very bad party, but your adversary is the 
d — 1 ; and as Milton, an excellent Republican, did most 
excellently and transcendentally overcome and defeat him, 
so I have no doubt you will, and by the same means — the 
intrinsic merit and virtue of your cause, according to pro- 
fession, at least ; and profession is something." 

On the od of April, 1844, he wrote to the same friend : 
" Do me the favor to say to Ben, that, when he resolves 
to take up Blackstone, I recommend to him the edition of 
Tucker. Although it is not a commentary on Blackstone, it 
is a most excellent comparison of English and American 
constitutions and laws, illustrated with much clearness and 
ability, with sufficient candor and impartiality, and afford- 
ing, at the same time, the best exposition of the Federal 



526 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XIV. 

Constitution and government of any work extant. I fear 
the Federal lawyers will proscribe and banish it their 
libraries.'"'"' 

On the od of June, 1844, in reply to a question from two 
gentlemen of Putnam county, whether it would be "politic 
and expedient, or rather just, on the part of the Govern- 
ment of the United States, considering its existing relations 
to Mexico, and its geographical position to that of Texas, 
to incorporate immediately the latter Government into the 
Union, without the formal acknowledgment on the part 
of Mexico," Governor Troup wrote a letter, in which he 
said he had "not the least doubt" in regard to "that meas- 
ure, not merely as one of expediency and sound policy, but 
as vital, in every sense of the word ; without which," he 
added, " the southern and western country are in imminent 
peril." We make a few more extracts : 

"If Texas, following the example of Mexico, were to 
pass an act of emancipation, well knowing that the same 
population would simultaneously cross the line to poison 
and corrupt and incite their own color to cut the throats of 
the women and children on this side, no doubt could be enter- 
tained by the strictest casuists, of the right of the Southern 
States (the Federal Government refusing its aid,) to protect 
themselves by all the means in their power, as a case of 
imminent peril, and one not admitting of delay. '•• '"' '"•' 
'" ■"' "'■ '"■ '■' •• '■• ■"■ When the United States ac- 
knowledged the independence of Texas, Mexico knew 
that such acknowledgment would qualify Texas to make 
a treaty of cession, or any other treaty ; and she did 
not then choose to make it a cause of war with the United 
States.'- 

He stated, as the substance of his views, that it was 
" better, every thing considered, to take the treaty of ces- 
sion as a good and valid treaty, than to run the hazard of 
occupying Texas by force, (whether a territory of Mexico or 



* In the same letter, be said: "Ever and auou, I hear of old friends falling iu witli 
the Federal current — even '■••. *. •'•. * « * * :5 * * * * * Pray tell me how 

you find Mr. '■■ *. in health and spirits, and if our excellent friend * ■■' is yet proof 

against hiaclc cockade and blue-lights. Amongst all the going, gone, he would be the last one 
on whom a shade of suspicion would rest ; but the world is changeable ; and, without the tardy 
process of precession, the equator and tlie poles nuty come into juxtaposition before we can 
turn round." — Ed. 



Chap. XIV.] CALIFORNIA AND COMPROMISE. 



527 



Texas,) as a measure of self-preservation against the threat- 
ened aggressions of England, Mexico, or Texas, or all of 
them," &c. 

From private letters written by him, about this time, it 
would be interesting to make extracts, did the limits of this 
work permit. They all breathe the spirit of contentment, 
and evince a keen relish for the pleasures of social life. 
Without active participation in politics, he yet took an in- 
terest in what was going on. 

On the 14th of June, 1845, he wrote : 

" The Federal party seems to be losing ground, 
fast, in every quarter, and in a fair way to be reducible to 
cipher. May such be its fate, if the omnipotency of the 
other should not make it forgetful of its duties and princi- 
ples." 

Of his health, he said, on 20th May, 184(5 : 

•' To tell you the truth, my health is bad, very bad — an 
increasing aggravation of my old asthmatic nffection — one 
of the consequences of old ngo." 

The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, concluded in 1848, 
between the United States and Mexico, secured to the for- 
mer that vast extent of country then known as N"ew Mexico 
and part of California. The controversy growing out of 
the attempt to form Governments for these Territories, and 
the connection of the question of slavery with the agitation 
which grew out of those attempts, are of too recent occur- 
rence and too closely allied to the general history of the 
times, to require particular notice here. It was in refer- 
ence to these absorbing questions, that Gov. Troup, in 1849, 
wrote two letters to a friend, in Mobile, and which, for a 
reason already assigned, we are forced to j)lace in the Ap- 
pendix. Although the writer was then in his seventieth 
year, and abstracted from jDublic employment of every sort, 
these letters show a vigor of intellect, and a spirit of patri- 
otic devotion to the rights of the South, entitling them to 
the careful consideration of the reader. Of the same char- 
acter, are the two letters to his friend Dr. Slappey ; the latest 



528 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XIV • 

ol' these two having been written when Gov. Troup was 
nearly seventy-live years old. 

Of Governor Troup's allusion to " fanaticism in the per- 
son of the good and gallant La Fayette," a passing notice 
is proper. From the second letter to his Mobile friend, it 
will be seen that " the illustration of fanaticism in the 
character of Gen. La Fayette, was not designed to detract 
any thing from the merits of that really excellent man." 
Gov. Troup was too candid to give countenance to what he 
deemed political error, wdien it came in his way. It was 
well understood, at the time, that, during La Fayette's 
visit to Georgia, he uttered some imprudent remarks on the 
subject of slavery, in presence of Gov. Troup, which made 
the interview unpleasant." 

In February, 1850, the General Assembly adopted reso- 
lutions approving the recommendation for a convention to 
be held at Kashville, in June, of that year, by the people 
of the slave-holding States, " as eminently conducive to 
harmonious and efficient action among them, in defence of 
the institution of slavery," &c., &c., and for the appoint- 
ment, by the Legislature, of four delegates from the State 
at large ; and two from each of the Congressional Districts, 
to be elected by the people on the first Tuesday in April. 
The people of Chatham county having determined to ap- 
point a committee " from each of the political parties," 
&c., to recommend one candidate and one alternate, each, 
for the first Congressional District, the Democratic i.om- 
mittee unanimously recommended Governor Troup as the 
Democratic candidate.'!" It is almost superfluous to add 

* Fi-om an article wbich appeared in a Columbus nows-papor, in 1850, tha following is 
extracted : '■ When Gen. La Fayette departed, Governor Troup, having waved his hand in 
parting salutation, turned to his Staff, and said, ' gentlemen, I heartily welcomed General La 
Fayette to the soil of Georgia, but I am more than rejoiced to see him depart.' " 

It is due, we think, to Gov. Troup and Gon. La Fayette, to suppose that when the former 
speaks of the latter having been " prime mover in the destiny of St. Domingo,"' &c., he meant 
no more than tliat the tragedy on that Island was the natural result of anti-slavery or emancipa- 
tion sentiments. Ilis reference to Mr. Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, shows Governor Troup's 
perfect independence in thought and speech. — Ep. 

t The committee said : " This has necessarily been done without consultation with him- 
The committee, however, have full confidence that he who commenced his brilliant career of 
public duties in this Congressional District, and in this county, -will now, after a long life of 



Chat. XIV.] NASHVILLE CONVENTION— FKESIDENCY. 529 

that lie was elected. On the od of April, two clays after 
the election, he addressed a note to Hon. R. M. Charlton, 
in which, after stating that he had received the announce- 
ment, only the day before, "inconsequence of very bad 
weather and high waters," he added : 

" I trust, notwithstanding, that the First Congressional 
District may have elected a gentleman who will serve 
them at Nashville, with more certainty and more ability 
than myself. Be pleased to say to the Committee, and, 
through them, to my fellow-citizens of Chatham county, 
without distinction of party, that there is scarcely any thing 
they would ask me to do, which, if I thought I could do it 
well, I would not consent to do for them. In inviting me 
to represent them in the, assembly contingently to be held 
at Nashville, they have, on their part, but performed an act 
of pure and exalted patriotism ; on mine, by accepting the 
invitation, I would only have performed the duty of a good 
citizen." 

The Couveution met on the tirst Monday in June, and 
adjourned over to a day in November. Governor Troup 
did not attend either session.'- Public opinion was much 
divided in Georgia, as to the propriety or probable useful- 
ness of the Convention. 

In 1852, Governor Troup was nominated for the Presi- 
dency of the United States, by a convention of the South- 
ern Rights party of Alabama, with Gen. Quitman for the 
Yice-Presidency. To the Committee who informed him of 
the nomination, he/eplied, as follows: 

disinterested and devoted patriotism, yield, with a lively satisfaction, to the call of those whose 
fathers matured and cherished his early aspirations, and gave to the State an eminent patriot 
and statesman, and who has proved liimself faithful to his first friends, by being true to our 
common country. The committee deem it of the first importance, at such a juncture as the 
present, to call into the public service, men of the purest virtue, the most exalted patriotism, 
and the highest grade of talent. All these unite eminently in Governor Troup."— En. 

■> On 10th October, he wrote to a friend : "Finding things getting everyday worse and 
worse, and particularly after the miscalled Pacification by Congress, I resolved, even if able, 
not to attend the second Convention at Nashville, if one should be holden ; and accordingly, a 
few days since, informed the Governor that I would not; so that, if he deems it best, he may 
nominate a successor, whether there be really any vacancy or not. It would have given me 
Jimch pleasure, if I could have represented the few counties, especially Chatham, which voted 
for me." 

The '• Pacification" to which this letter referred, embraced the so called "' compromise" meas- 
ures of Congress, including the Act proposing Northern and Western boimdaries for Texas; 
to establish a Territorial Government for Now Mexico, &c., the Act for "admission of California 
into the Union," and the Act "to establish a Territorial Government for Utah;" aUapproved 
on tlie 9th September, 18o0. See U. P. Statutes at Large, vol. 0, pages 446 to 4-5S.— Ed. 

07 



530 I^Il^E OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XIV. 

Valdosta, Laueens County, Ga,, '( 
September 27, 1852. \ 

Gentlemen : I am now seventy-two years old, and, for 
the last twenty or thirty years, if the Presidency had been 
offered spontaneously by the people of the United States, 
I would not have accepted it, because of my physical dis- 
qualification to execute the duties of the office. At no 
period within that time, could I, as an honest man, have 
done so. ]S[ot many years ago, the State Rights party of 
Georgia were pleased to make that nomination ; and my 
acquiescence was placed on the footing that the accept- 
ance w^ould fulfil the object of the demand, viz: that, other- 
wise, that party which had very strong claims on me as a 
native and citizen of Georgia, and could not conscientiously 
vote for any other candidate, who had a fair prospect of 
success, were at liberty to vote for me, while other persons 
had none. 

It was the partiality of friendship which suggested a 
similar movement of distinguished citizens of South Caro- 
lina, on another occasion, and which I discountenanced for 
similar reasons. 

Your decided nomination, on the j)resent occasion, 
leaves me no alternative but to submit myself cheerfully 
to the will of the State Eights convention of Alabama, 
recently assembled at Montgomery, in that State ; but for 
the sole purpose of organizing that party. It, as well as the 
State Rights party of any portion of the United States, 
may rightfully demand that which it has only asked, be- 
cause, in my day and generation I had labored to contribute 
a mite, according to my humble abilities, to sustain its 
principles. They are the only principles worth any thing 
to the Southern country ; and as long as a party of two or 
three can be gathered together for such a purpose, the 
contribution of my name is the least I could think of mak- 
ing — at least, for the ]3urpose of merely organizing that 
party ; but, for that ^purpose only. 

The increasing pressure of disease forewarns me that I 
have but a short l)reathing spell ; and I hasten to my con- 
clusion. 

I would vote for Pierce and King. Mr. King is a most 
excellent man, and I have not expected ever to i3e able to 
vote for a jSTorthern man so pure and disinterested as Mr. 
Pierce ; and you may never have such another opportunity. 
Embrace it — and use my name, as long as you please, for 
organizing the State Rights party, and maintaining and 
consecrating its principles. 



Chap. XIV. | LAST SICKNESS— DEATH. 531 

It is honorable to have such an associate in the nomina- 
tion, as Gen, Quitman. lie deserves and would adorn 
any office. 

(x. M. Tkoitp."- 
To Messrs. Thomas AVilliams, 
J. A. Ehnore,.G. B. DuVal, 
Montgomery, Ala. 

Letters from him to his friends, written between this time 
and the period of his death, show much mental vigor, if 
not bodily health. They relate to various siibjects ; and 
extracts from them would be interesting — especially those 
relating to agriculture — if space permitted. Composed in 
the privacy of retirement and the confidence of friendship, 
they evince a tenderness of regard for those whom he loved, 
and an affection which age had not lessened. His recrea- 
tions seem to have consisted in attention to his farming 
interests, and occasional fishing excursions. In early life, 
he was particularly fond of the chase : the relish for which 
he indulged to a comparatively late period. The time, 
however, was approaching, when he was to leave the scenes 
of earth, and the associations which had contributed to 
make his decline of life tranquil and placid. 

Being on a visit to his Mitchell place, in Montgomery 
county, in April, 1856, Governor Troup was taken with 
hemorrhage of the lungs, which there terminated his life, 
on 26th April, 1856, after an illness of five days. His re- 
mains were interred at Eose Mount, in the same county, 
beside those of his brother, Eobert L. Troup. A granite 
monument, with a suitable inscription, marks the spot — the 
whole being enclosed b}^ a fence of native sand-stone. 

Considering the length of time he had been out of pub- 
lic service, the testimonials, throughout the State, on the 
occasion of his death, were highly honorable to his mem- 
ory, and showed the estimation in which his virtues and 
public services were held by the people of Georgia. A 
detail of these testimonials would lead to undue prolixity. 



* la the publication of this letter, at the time, au error occurcil, not important to \k 
Meed hero. The Tronp and Qnitmnii ticket got a few tlionsand voti^s iu Alabama. — Ep. 



532 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XIV. 

At Savannah, a meeting of citizens, irrespective of party, 
and presided over by the Mayor, was held on the 5th of 
May ; at which, feeling and suitable resolutions were adopt- 
ed. One of these resolutions contained a request that the 
Honorable John C. ISTicoll " deliver a eulogy on the life 
and character of the deceased." Another resolution was, 
to the effect, that " the Chatham Artiller}^, of which Gov. 
Troup was an honorary member, be requested to fire min- 
ute-guns corresponding with the number of years of the 
deceased," &c., &c/' 

To Hon. Joseph Henry Lumpkin, we are indebted for an 
elegant tribute to the memory of Governor Troup, con- 
tained in a letter dated 15th September, 1857. The fol- 
lowing extracts are made : 

'"■ ■■•■ " "" "" ■•• '-^ ""' "A more modest man never 
lived, than George M. Troup. He arrogated to himself 
no credit for any thing he had ever done. And in this, as 
in most other respects, how widely he differed from the 
politicians of the present day ! Still, I remember, distinctly, 
that he w^as better satisfied with his speeches and efforts in 
Congress, in bringing on the last war with Great Britain, 
after her dastardly and disgraceful attack upon the Chesa- 
peake, than any other portion of his past political life. 

" Your letter has brought vividly to my feelings, the 
fact not only that the great head, but that nearly all the 
members, of his military family, are dead : Brailsford, and 
Jackson, and Bailey, and Eandolph ; men without fear and 
without reproach, are not alive to testify to the more than 
Roman purity and patriotism of our glorious old chief. I 
rejoice to have the opportunity of contributing my humble 
mite to the merits of one whom I loved as a man and ven- 
erated as a magistrate beyond all others. Georgia will 
never look upon his like again. 

" ISTone dared approach him with any other than public 
considerations as motives for his conduct." f 

* It is greatly to lie regretted that Judge McoU's engagements did not permit him to 
pronouuce a eulogy. On 12th May, niiuute-guns were fired by the Chatham Artillery. The 
following is an extract from the minutes of the corps": '•' Marching to Forsyth Place, seventy 
six minute-guns were fired, agreeably to the resolution of the corps, passed at the meeting on 
the 5th inst." For a transcript of the entire proceeding-s of the corps, wo are indebted to 
Lieut. C.C. Jones; but we have not space for their insertion. The City Court of Savannak 
adjourned over, for one day, as a token of respect for the memory of Gov. Troup. — Ed. 

t We regret that room cannot bo made for more of this letter. Judge Lumpkin was 
one of Governor Troup's Staff, and a warm personal and iiolitieal friend. Of the Governor's 



OuAP. XIV.] SUMMARY OF CHARACTER. 533 

111 person, Gov. Troup was of the ordinary lieiglit, with 
light complexion, blue eyes and sandy hair. His carriage 
was erect, and his step slow and measured. He would have 
passed for a military man, anywhere ; and those who knew 
him best, accorded to him military talents of a high order. 
The gravity of liis mien, and the guttural and almost 
solemn tones of his voice, led strangers to suppose that his 
dignity partook of austerity ; but this was not so. Re- 
served, even in boyhood, he was still open and affable 
with his associates ; adding, early in life, a tinge perhaps of 
melancholy, to that native dignity which never forsook him. 
Perfect candor and the strictest truthfulness were eminent 
characteristics. Where principle Avas involved, he was a 
stranger to the spirit of compromise.""' 

His domestic life was embittered by the early and sudden 
death of his first wife ; and, afterwards, by the prostration 
of health, and death of the second, at a time, when, amid 
the cares of office and the active engagements of life, the 
weary heart looks for comfort and repose at home; and his de- 
clining years were saddened by the death of his older daugh- 
ter, and the wreck of healtli of his only son. Nevertheless, 
he retained a degree of cheerfulness to the last; enjoying 
the social intercourse of friends at his secluded homestead ; 
numbers of whom were attracted there, as well by the cor- 
diality of his welcome and the simplicity of his manners, 
as by the amount of information he imparted, and the 
stores of political wisdom which he was ever ready to 
unlock. Of the qualities of his mind and his heart, his 
writings are the best delineators. To a vigorous intellect, 
he added the faculty of a sound judgment, and the quality 
of almost intuitive perception of the characters of men 
and the tendency of measures. Whilst his firmness was 
as conspicuous as that of any man, his perfect purity of 
intention, and his disinterested zeal for the public good, 

inessage, at the extra session iu 1825, he says : '• Portions of it have long become as familiar as 
Iiousehokl words ; and the day is not distant when its concluding i)aragraph will become the 
watch-word of the patient, long-suffering and down-troddcu South." — En. 

•■■ On tlie 19th of April, 185C, just one weeli before his death, in the postscript to a letter, 
written to the overseer at his Turkey Creek place, he saiil, in reference to a thi-eatencd disijute 
with a neighbor, about apiece of land : --Tf T have not riglit on inv side. T will surrcndc^r, 
but not compromise.'" — En. 



534 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XIV. 

were a standing rebuke to the timidity of the wavering 
politician, and the selfishness of the demagogue. Well 
instructed in the principles of law, he was deeply read in 
history, and was a thorough master of the English lan- 
guage. The productions of his pen are amongst the most 
eloquent on record, and his style was as free from redun- 
dancy, as his language was remarkable for directness of 
expression and force of utterance. Whilst Governor Troup 
was not usually ranked with the great intellects of the day, 
there are those who believe that some of his writings 
will compare, favorably, with any of the political essays 
to which the theory of our federative system of govern- 
ment has given rise. As specimens of profound thought, 
and forcible and clear argumentation, they deserve to 
rank with the best treatises of any age. In what were 
considered his extreme views of the absolute sovereignty 
of tlie American States, Governor Troup was certainly in 
a minority; yet, those who condemn these views as im- 
practicable, have nowhere shown the fallacy of his reason- 
ing, or proved that there is less danger from practically 
maintaining the opposite opinions. Every day's observation 
tends to confirm the truth of Governor Troup's apprehension 
of danger from the usurpations of the central government. 

Consequent upon his ardent temperament, Gov. Troup's 
oratory, in the earlier portion of his life, was impassioned 
and vehement ; but not open to tlie jeering criticism of his 
enemies, that he frothed at the mouth. In later life, his 
utterance, whether in public or private, was slow, distinct 
and emphatic. A gentleman"-', who heard his address 
before the Board of Public Works, in 1826, pronounced 
him a fine public si^eaker. 

Of mere outward aj^P^arance, few men were more care- 
less. In the matter of dress, he had little taste ; and on 
this subject several amusing anecdotes are told. There is 
no doubt, that, during the canvass for Governor, before the 
Legislature of 1823, some of his supporters requested one 
of his most devoted friends to give him a hint, that the 
election would be lost, if he did not appear in better trim. 

* J. Hamilton Conpcr, Esq., who was a membei- of the Board. — En. 



Chap. XIV.] SUMMARY OF CHARACTER— CONCLUSION. 535 

he duty was delicately performed, and the wish of his 
friends was at once gratified. Something similar had oc- 
curred, in 1816, when ho passed through Savannah to take 
his seat in the U. S. Senate. This did not proceed from 
parsimony, or a disposition to appear eccentric. His 
clothes were usually of good quality, but often of the oddest 
colors or the worst fit. His peculiar and perhaps only 
fancy was for a blue coat with metal buttons, a buff vest, 
and a fur cap. Whilst his habits were retiring, and most 
of his private life was spent at his plantation ; yet it was 
usual for him to pass a portion of the v;arm season, at the 
Indian Springs, or some other watering-place in Georgia. 
He exercised, even at these places, much on horseback. 
His principal diversions, at home, consisted in riding over 
his ci'ops, in fishing and hunting ; but more of his time was 
spent in reading. Possessed of an ample fortune, he lived 
in abundance, if not elegance, delighting in the society and 
conversation of friends. His memory of historical events 
is said to have been remarkable ; and his published and 
official correspondence shows the readiness and facility of 
the action of his mental powers. No one can contemplate 
his executive career, without awarding to him administra- 
tive talents of first grade. Add, to all this, an iron will, 
and a resolution that quailed before no difiiculty and no 
foe ; we have, if not the very model of a statesman, one at 
least who could not only inspire confidence in the doubting, 
but lead his countrymen through any crisis. 

There is no doubt that he would have made any honor- 
able sacrifice to avoid the shedding of blood, especially in 
civil strife ; and yet it is true, that, rather than yield the 
principles involved in the Indian controversy, he would 
have marshaled the whole military power of the State, and 
have led her troops to victory or annihilation. The wonder 
is, that the authorities at Washington, who were not igno- 
rant of his character, or of the people of Georgia, could have 
supposed that the threat of military coercion would cause 
him or them to falter in their purpose. ■• 

* There is, probably, truth in the statement which has been made, that, in a conversation 
between Gov. Tronp and a leading Carolina statesman who did not precisely understand the 
difference in the position of Georgia on the Indian, and that of South Carolina on iho 



586 LIFE OF GEORGE M. TROUP. [Chap. XIV. 

On the subject of " intensest interest" to the Southern 
people, Gov. Troup spoke in no equivocal tones ; and his 
Avritings show his decided opposition to the folly of forever 
arguing a question which is entirely beyond the right of 
Federal interference. Treating it as such, he was always 
ready, on this as on every other question of undoubted 
right, that the enemies of the Constitution exercise the 
" option to do us justice, or, refusing it, to present a mil- 
itary chest and armed men." 

Of his religious views, not much is known, beyond what 
is disclosed in his messages and correspondence. These 
show a deep reverence for the Supreme Being, and a real- 
izing sense of the pure and holy truths of the Christian 
religion. He made no public profession of faith ; but it is 
evident that he was far removed from the taint of infidelity 
or scepticism.""' He is said to have been an attendant 
on the services of the sanctuary, when opportunity ofiered ; 
and his preference is believed to have been for the Episco- 
pal forms of worship. 

By resolution of the General Assembly, adopted in 1857, 
a life-size portrait of Governor Troup has been painted, and 
hangs on one side of the President's chair in the Senate- 
Chamber of Georgia — the portrait of General John Clark 
being on the other. That of Governor Troup is said to be 
an excellent likeness. The engraved likeness in this volume, 
is also said to be a life-like delineation of him, who was 
pronounced by a devoted and discriminating friend, " a 
Roman in feature, and a Roman in soul." 

A county in Georgia, the county site of another, a ward 
and square in Savannah, and perhaps other places, com- 
memorate the name of Tkoup ; but his enduring monument 
is the love of the people of Georgia for the memory of one 
who was first in their affections. 

Tarifl', (luestion, the former cut the matter short, by the remark: J'cs ; but whilst yoti were 
arguing the question, we ivouUl have had our troops in the field .'" 

* An intimate friend of Governor Troup assures us that he considered him a pious man. 
On one occasion, as related to us by another friend, a conversation occurred, in Governor 
Troup's presence, on the subject of prayer for rain. One of the party, expressing a doubt on 
tlic point, appealed to Governor Troup for his opinion. The reply was : " Pray for rain, Sir? 
pray for evert TniNr,!"~Ep. 



APPENDIX. 



[The following is the letter to Major John H. Howaril, noticed in ths thirteenth chapter of 
this work. The " namesake," to whom reference is made, was the late Honorable George Troup 
Howard, who died in September, 1S56. The letter was published in the early part of 1S34.] 



Washington, February 10th, 1833. 

My Dear Sir : Knowing that you wish to possess my views of the present state of affairs, 
and of the measures connected with them, I sit down to then- exposition, with the conviction, 
that, whether they happen to bo in accordance with your own, or not, they will receive a kind 
and hospitable ti-eatment, more than proportioned to their deserts ; and, if valueless, be dis- 
missed with the generosity and urbanity so congenial to your nature : otherwise, it may be a 
little legacy to your son, my name-sake, who, if he inherit the patriotism of the father, and 
virtues of the mother, may find them u3l-1"u1 to hiui, in sustaining, in many an hour of trial, as 
we have done, the rights of the States, against a very strong Government created by the 
States, now threatening, by a most unnatural action, to cripple, to humble, and finally to de- 
stroy, its creator, which, in the natural and healthful action of the system, would be also its 
preserver. 

I am not certain that you are aware of my early and uniform disrelish of the doctrine of 
Nullification, as maintained by the ruling party in a sister State. My objections to that 
doctrine were unconnected with party of any kind, and were founded on the difEcultj' of recon- 
ciling the peacefulness and constitutionality which it asserted, with that jiowerful remedial pro- 
cess, by which the wheels of the Federal Government would be stopped, as well as that resort 
to construction, (the old Federal sin,) by which alone the doctrine could be maintained, which 
has involved us in all our troubles, and which is equally good at any time to establish a veto 
against the General Government, a power to protect manufactures, or a power to do any thing 
a majority in Congress pleases. It was easy to perceive, that such a remedy might, by pos- 
sibility, be peaceful ; that depending on the other party ; but not certainly peaceful. It was 
more difficult to see how it could be constitutional, because, as no power was given by the 
Constitution to the States to resist the laws of the United States, none such could be derived 
by implication or construction :* the derivation of remedies or powers, by construction, being, 
according to the republican doctrines, inadmissible. Indeed, no Constitution would authorize 
resistance to the laws, without defining explicitly, how, in what manner, and by whom, such 
resistance could be lawfully made. It is assumed, therefore, that the laws must bo executed ; 
and at all events, according to tho stipulations of tho federal compact. But wlio, in the last 
resort, are the judges of these stipulations ? None ai-e created by the compact, other than the 
Courts of the United States. The jurisdiction of the Courts of the United States must be con- 
fined to judicial cases, to the exclusion of political questions between sovereigns: and, so far, 



* What are called the reserved rights or powers in the Constitution, are very erroneously 
deemed the sovereign power. They, on the contrary, are only those rights and powers which 
are usually exercised by governments, or enjoyed by the people, and which have not been 
given to the Federal Government. If they were construed to mean sovereign power, then, 
indeed, it would follow, that aStats had conceded a portion of its sovereignty to the Govern- 
ment of tlie United States, and retained only a portion for itself, which would be making that 
Government sovereign, when it is only servant. Sovereignty protects both delegated and re- 
served powers, but is neither tho one nor the other. 



II. APPENDIX. 

the Courts of the United States have paraiiiouut jurisdiction. The " controversies between 
two or more States," mean only such judicial questions as are presented by "cases in law or 
equity," to which their jurisdiction is limited by the Constitution. Political controversies, or 
questions between Governments, could not have been intended, they not admitting the in- 
terpretation of cases in law or equity ; much less could political controversies between the 
States and federal Government have been intended, they not being recognized by the Con- 
stitution as parties in any case.«. 

If, therefore, in controversies between those parties, no independent tribunal has been estab- 
lished for their adjustment, we can have no alternative but the resort to one or both of the 
parties — if to one, which one? — iftoboth, why? If the parties were equal in all respects, rea- 
son would prescribe equal participart;ion in the adjustment, which would be an adjustment by 
negotiation. If they were not equal, but the one was in power and authority superior to the 
other, the same reason might claim for tho superior party a participation in the adjustment, 
proportioned to that superiority. Between the government of a State and the Government of 
the United States, this equality, as tliey both represent sovereigns, must be admitted. No 
superiority can be claimed for the Government of tho United States because of its repre- 
sentation of more sovereigns than one ; as all their powers, in mass, amount only to the 
powers of one sovereign. Regarding the Government of the United States, therefore, apart 
from the Constitution, in tlie light of any other independent government, the equality 
between it and a State Government establishes the right of equal participation in tho 
adjustment of any political controversy which may arise between them. But, as between 
the Government of the United States and the sovereignty of a State, there can be no such 
equality, the same sovereignty having created both governments, and standing in relation to 
each other of creator and creature — lienco the right of a sovereign State to decide for itself, 
without appeal; still it is among the most sacred of its duties, to fulfil, strictly, all its 
engagements, especially its constitutional engagements, they being of the highest and most 
solemn import, not engagements to the Government of the United States, but to the other 
sovereign States. There is no sovereignty in what is called the United States. The United 
States is nothing but a government or a confederacy, tho style of which is, " the United 
States ;" and Government, according to our doctrine, is not sovereign, but is agent or servant 
of the sovereign. The sovereign must be found in the States, that is, in the people of the 
States. It is in virtue of this sovereignty that the State Government is formed ; and it is in 
virtue of the same sovereignty that tho United States Government is formed. This sov- 
ereignty, wherever it exists, is omnipotent; it is the same in one independent community 
as another, and is insusceptible of division, of increase or diminution ; it can only be de- 
stroyed, by destroying the community in which it exists. Constitutions and governments are 
emanations from it, as light from the sun, which parts with it constantly, without itself. 
being impau-ed, or wasted, or weakened. Hence it is, that it makes -and unmakes at plea- 
sure, and knows no superior but Divinity, and no law but the universal law ordained by that 
Divinity, whicli is the law of right and justice. According to oivr theory and practice, the 
mode of action of this sovereign, is to form Constitutions, which prescribe the rules for the 
conduct of the agent or servant called the Government. If the sovereign is dissatisfied 
either with the rule or with the conduct of the agent, it can abolish or change it, at pleasure. 
If it can abolish or cliange the rule, it cau destroy the agent, because the rule is of higher 
power and authority. 

Admitting, therefore, that a State may, at any time, destroy its own State Constitution, can 
a State, of its own pleasure, destroy the Constitution of tho United States? The same power 
which created the one, has created the other — and may it not, for causes which shall seem 
good to itself, change or destroy the one, as well as the other ? The answer is, no : Because 
other States, equally sovereign as itself, are equal parties to it. But, although a State may 
not for this reason alter or destroy the Constitution, it may throw it off; it may release itself; 
It may, by its own volition, for justifiable causes, cease to be a party to it. Are tlicre no such 
good and justifiable causes? Yes— there are such as will justify the breach of a compact 
between sovereigns, by one of the parties to that compact; many of which causes are to be 
found in that public law, which is the Divine law, which is the law of right and justice, and 
which being the paramount law, is as controlling over compacts and constitutions, as the sover- 
eign itself. Let it not be said that tho Government of the United States, formed by the compact 
is paramount, bccanso it is a compound of all the sovereignties of all the States. Sovereignty. 



APPENDIX. 



m. 



it is repeateil ; admits of iio degrees. It is tlie .same iu a small State as iu a great one; the 
same iu tlie State of Delawai'eor Rhode Island, as in the greatest community. It is said that 
the States have parted with many of their sovereign powers, as the power to make war— the 
power to make treaties, the power to regulate foveigni commerce, litc, &c., &c. But this is 
a mistake; they have not parted with them: they have merely authorized the common agent 
to exercise them, under prescribed rules and limitations; the powers themselves residing in 
the States, and inseparable from them as independent communities. It is true, the Constitu- 
tion speaks of powers granted and powers reserved ; but this only means powers of the States 
to be exercised by the Government of tlio United States, and powers of the States to be 
exercised by the States. And, with regard to the powers prohibited to the General Govern- 
ment and to the States, it is only a declaration by each to the other States, that it will not 
exercise, itself, nor permit the exercise by the common agent, of such powers — the sovereignty 
still retaining the unity and indivisibility which are essential to it, and which are indestructible. 
The fundamental error has been to consider the United States as self-existent, and independent, 
and sovereign, as a party to a compact between sovereigns, and as capable of Imparting as 
well as receiving sovereign powers under stipulated engagements; but this error is dissipated 
simply by asking, what is the United States ? Territorially speaking, there is no such separate 
and identical thing as the United States. " United States," in the preamble to the Constitution, 
means the thirteen sovereign and independeiot States, united for certain defined and limited 
purposes therein expressed. The same words were used iu the articles of confederation, one 
of which asserted expressly the absolute sovereignty of each State — in this sense it was 
universally understood by the States immediately after the ratification of the Constitution — 
for when it was attempted to bring one of these sovereigns before the Courts of the United 
States, it was indignantly resented by all of them as an insult, and the Constitution was so 
amended, (and, I think, by unanimous consent,) as to prevent the possibility of its recurrence. 
>'AVe, the people," means the people of the several States, who alone were competent to ordain 
and establish constitutions of government, whether for the management of foreign or domes- 
tic concerns. If New Hampshire and Georgia had not ratified the Constitution, they might 
have confederated and adopted the same Constitution, in precisely the same words. We, the 
people of the United States. What States? The several States of New Hampshire and 
Georgia, " united" for certain defined purposes, do " ordain and establish" this Constitution, &c. — 
"■ united" having reference to States,'and not to the people-andthe words "ordain and establish," 
having reference to people and not to the States. Nay, further, Georgia or New Hampshire 
might, each of them, have formed two governments and two constitutions, the one for tte 
conduct of its foreign relations, the other for the conduct of its domestic, on %ie same 
principles, and with the same powers as their present State and Federal Governments; yet 
no one would believe, that, in the first case, the people of Georgia and the people of New 
Hampshire were one people, or that, in the last, either State had parted with its sovereignty 
to one or both governments ; it would still possess the same right to alter, new model or 
destroy both. The nature and extent of the powers delegated, could not impair the sover- 
eignty of the States. If the convention had delegated all powers. Executive, Legislative and 
Judicial, to Gen. Washington and his successors forever, the sovereignty of the States would 
have remained entire. When the monarchists of the Convention, who labored the destruction of 
State sovereignty, had thrown every thing into disorder, and Dr. Franklin had advised the 
Convention to go to praying, and the members were returning home in despair of anything 
being accomplished but mischief, Gunning Bedford, a noble patriot of the now misrepresented 
or apostate State of Delaware, turned the fortune of the day, by warning them, if they dared 
to touch the sovereignty of his State, that State would call in the aid of foreign powers to 
protect her sovereignty; and so the Constitution passed, explicitly recognizing that sover- 
eignty, by the organization of the Senate; and not in the least impairing it by the represen- 
tation of the people of each State in the House of Representatives. Politically speaking, 
there is no such being as the United States ; distinct from the States, no such community 
or people. There is such a thing as the Government of the United States, an artificial 
creature, an incorporeal hereditament — but a government is not a nation, or a people, or a 
community, any more than it is a sovereign. 

The Constitution, to be sure, speaks of "we the people;" but it only mea^he people of the 
States who formed that Constitution, and who were the only rightful framers of Constitu- 



n^ APPENDIX. 

tions. As one people or community, they have never performed a single act either to originate the 
Government or to carry it on, nor will they nor can they, perform any to end it— no such people 
or community could have been formed, but by breakingup all the communities called the States, 
and consolidating them into one mass, which never could be done but by force or consent. We 
speak of boundaries between the United States and foreign States— but they aro only such, 
because they are the boundaries between the States and such foreign powers. The Govern- 
ment of the U. S., if the boundaries were theirs, could alter them at pleasure, which it cannot 
do— it cannot acquire territory within a State, for the erection of needful buildings, without 
the consent of that State ; and then may have no jurisdiction within the same, if withheld by 
that authority. The Government of the United States, is, in fact, a corporate body, with a 
common seal and common flag, representing the States according to a defined and limited 
charter, which cannot be violated but at the risk of forfeiture, of which the sovereign creating 
it must judge. But js it competent to one State to judge of the violation of the charter ? Yes 
—but it judges for itself alone— every other State, in virtue of the same sovereignty, has thg 
same right. Why should it not? Tlie answer is, it would bo too liable to abuse; the Union 
would bo in constant danger of agitation and dismemberment, by capricious and irregular 
movements of the States. Here is another fundamental error: — Instead of ascribing wisdom, 
prudence, moderation and discretion, to a sovereign State, it is taken for granted that such 
State wil not understand her true interest, will not pursue it, will act from the whim or 
caprice or passion of the moment. But this is not the history of States ; on the contrary, 
experience has proven, that all well regulated communities are most gencr.ally governed by a 
wise, judicious, and temperate regard to their own true interests. Now, what is the strongest 
ligament which binds this Union together? It is interest. Kemove this motive of interest, 
and how long would the Union last ?— just as long as it would take the States, ceasing to have 
interest in the Union, to withdraw from it. It is the beauty of the system, while it is tlie 
surest foundation for its perpetuity, that each State is left to pursue its own interest, in its 
own way, only aslung the Government of the United States, which it has itself constituted, to 
protect it from foreign powers stronger than itself, and to let it alone in all matters which it 
has not specially confided to its care. How different is this from the idea of keeping the States 
together by force— to keep together by force, those who were brought together by consent ; to 
keep Union by force, to keep amity by force, to keep brotherly love by force, to keep peace by 
force ! It is absurd, and fortunately it is as impossible as it is absurd. If a single State, stand- 
ing upon her sovereignty, resists the invasion of her rights, this is not to be endured, because 
it endangers the Union. If some half dozen States unite and secede, this, though it so far 
dissolves the Union, must be submitted to, because it cannot be resisted. So that the rightful- 
ness of force depends, not on the rightfulness of the cause, but on the relative strength and 
'weakness of the parties. But let us see what are the nature and extent of the risk and 
danger to the Union, of admitting the right of a State to repose itself upon its sovereignty, 
to resist an aggression by the Government of the United States. The danger and risk must 
be measured by the probable frequency of its recurrence : how often has it occurred since the 
date of the Union, and how often is it likely to occur ? Surely, it is not intendi-'i'. to deny to a 
State the right which is given to the worm, the right to defend itself, and to preserve itself; 
this, indeed, consists with the denial of all sovereignty, but I trust that in our downward 
course to the grave, we have not reached a point so near its brink. A State has engaged, with 
other States, that it will do certain things, and omit certain other things ; and that their com. 
mon agent shall be authorized to do, in their name and in virtue of their authority, certain 
other things. Hero, then, is a contract, involving rights and obligations on the face of it ; it 
purports to be perpetual and irrevocable : but is it so in iiict? Can it bo so between inde- 
pendent communities, who are bound, by the laws of God and nature, to protect and defend 
themselves, to take care of their own happiness and interests — aro these communities to bo 
bound, from generation to generation, without the possibility of finding absolution ? Is it per- 
mitted to us of the present degenerate day, to disinherit posteritj', by sending down to it a 
worn, debased and abraded shillmg, which they cannot refuse, but at the peril of their lives ? 
No— every generation must take care of itself, and by all the moral, political and physical force 
it can ; always bound by the great law of eternal justice, which it is not permitted to individuals 
or communities to violate— but contracts, and engagements can be violated by communities, 
under the sanction of that supreme law. This happens when the sovereign judges that the 
safety, happiness and interest of the community, require such violation. Nothing is or can be 



APPENDIX. 



V. 



required of it afterwards, but to repair whatever injury or damage it may have dono to the 
partiesinterested, of which, of course, they are the judges in equal degree, in virtue of the 
same equal rights and prerogatives. The declaration by the contract, that the Union shall be 
perpetual, only means that it shall bo so under the higher and supreme law, which permits 
the parties to consult their safety, happiness and interest. But with regard to the rights of 
the other parties : What can they do? As sovereigns they cau demand satisfaction: they 
can go to war; they can annihilate the party resisting — they may satisfy vengeance, but 
they may not compel that party to send Senators and Representatives to Congress, or electors 
of President to an electoral College. If the party make all the atonement and reparation in 
its power, this is all that can be lawfully demanded— and where the public law is satisfied, the 
party wronged can make its appeal, under that same law, to all the sovereigns of the civilized 
world, who would then be the arbiters between the party doing wrong, and the party suffer- 
ing wrong. I have said they maj' go to war, but certainly not by any power of the Constitu- 
tion. 

The Constitution authorizes the Federal Governnentto declare war — but not against a State. 
The articles of the Confederation expressly recognized the absolute sovereignty and independ- 
ence of the States; and the Congress, like the present Congress, had the power to declare war. 
It was not believed to be a power to declare war against a State. The Confederation was dis- 
solved to make way for tlie new Government, not that the new Government should have the 
power to coerce a State, but because, as no Government could possess tliat power, it should pos. 
sess the power which the Confederation had not, to coerce individuals. This power it amply 
possesses, for all autliorized purposes, and more than this it cannot claim. In the exercise of 
this power, it can proceed to any extremity which the Constitution authorizes. But if, in 
proceeding to that extremity, it encounters the sovereign power of a State, it must stop, be- 
cause it is a mere Government with.out sovereignty, acting agiiinst a sovereign power. It is 
true, that, if the action and counter action proceed from the two Governments merely, and 
not from the sovereign power, the Federal Government lias the advantage resulting from the 
stipulations of the compact, which its own courts, in all cases mere judicial, may enforce; but 
if the State, acting by convention of the whole people, shall throw itself upon its sovereignty, 
the other party may not proceed witliout .nn act of war. It is not admitted that the Con- 
gress has power to declare war against a State. Other States may combine to declare it, but 
they do so as sovereigns, to enforce stipulations of the contract, if they please, or for any 
other purposes tliey please. If they declare war and subjugate a State, they may divide it 
and make it parts of two adjacent States with the consent of those States; but these are the 
rights of war and of conquest. They have no right to deal with individuals captured or van- 
quished, otherwise than as prisoners of w.w. But it is said that the powers conferred by the 
Constitution shall be the supreme law, any thing in the laws or Constitution of a State to the 
contrary, notwithstanding— thus making the authority of the Constitution of the United 
States superior to that of the States — and this is all true ; but v.-ho ordained that superiority ? 
Why, the sovereign wliich ordained both Constitutions. Slight not the same sovereign have 
given that superiority to the State, over the United States Constitution ? Certainly. They 
are both alike the creatures of that sovereign, who could mould and fashion them at its will, 
without limitation or restraint, other than by the laws of God and nature. The Government 
of the United States passes a law ; it is in conformity with the Constitution ; it is arrested in 
its execution by the sovereign power of a State, which decides that the law is inconsistent 
with its safety : has a State the right to take care of itself? It decides a law to be null and void 
May not the power, of which the Constitution is but an emanation, so decide it ? Why not as 
rightfully as the Supreme Court, which is but the creature of a creature, and which stands, in 
relation to the sovereign, but as a servant or agent? Here, then, is an exercise of sovereign 
power, in a case where the legislation of the United States Government is admitted to be con- 
stitutional. If, for its safety or preservation, the sovereign can so act in such a case, a fortiori, 
it can so act when the law is in fact unconstitutional, or of doubtful constitutionality. You 
would cheerfully trust the decision to the Supreme Court, the members of which are appointed 
by the agent created by the instrument, which instrument is itself ordained by this sovereign 
power ; and you would not trust it to the same sovereign power. After all, it is seen that every 
thing turns on the existence of the sovereignty and independence of the States. If they are 
not sovereign and independent, where is sovereignty to be foimd ? In the United States Gov- 
ernment ? That doctrine has long since been fxploded. 



APPENDIX. yj^ 

Sovereignty was claimed for the Governments of Europe, founded on fraud and usurpation 
or conquest ; but our modern doctrine recognizes no sovereignty but the sovereignty of the 
people ; even the modern public law regards tl:e people, or community, or State, as the only 
sovereign. Sovereignty cannot be parceled out and divided among different communities, any 
more than that primary and paramount allegiance which is due to it. The sovereign prescribes 
obedience, decrees to whom it shall be owing, and measures the extent of it in the Constitu- 
tion. The power to punish treason, is given to the Government of the United States ; and 
treason is defined to be " the levying of war against the United States, or adhering to their* 
enemies," — not the levying of war against the Government, but against the United States, the 
States of the Union : not against the Government of the States, but against the people of the 
States ; in short, against the sovereign. Let it be remembered that the Articles of Confeder- 
ation expressly declared that " each State retained its sovereignty and independence," without 
any qualification ; and yet, almost all the powers now granted, were then granted, and many of 
them in the very same terms ; the words, " United States," being used in both instruments in the 
same manner, and conveying the same meaning. Now, it is evident that if the States were 
sovereign and independent then, they must be so now, unless an exjiress and formal surrender 
by tho sovereign power be shown, it being universally conceded that sovereignty cannot be 
lost by implication or construction. It is equally evident that if any of the sovereign States 
had failed to become parties to the present Constitution, such States would have remained to 
this day as sovereign and independent as any States or potentates of the world. 

On these principles and with these limitations, the Government of the United States is still 
the strongest in the world, for all the objects of the Constitution— certainly, for external 
relations it is so; and it is so because it is sustained by the sovereignty of the States. It only 
becomes weak, and sometimes degraded and contemptible, when, forgetting its obligation as a 
servant, it usurps the prerogative of the master, and plays the tyrant, without pretensions 
to the authority or dignity of the sovereign. If allegiance had been due to the United 
States in virtue of its sovereignty, there would have been no necessity for defining treason 
against the United States. Perhaps the apprehension was entertained, that, as no allegiance 
was due to the United States, inconsistent with that which is due to the States, the 
United States Government would not have had authority to purush treason, unless the 
power was expressly given; and that, if the Government assumed it without definition, 
it would be exercised as arbitrarily and capriciously as by the governments of Europe. If 
allegiance is due to the sovereign, and not to the government, how can the citizens obey 
the government and disobey the sovereign? If it be due to the government, and not to 
tho sovereign, the people of all the States know no other allegiance than that which 
is due to the Government of the United States ; and of course that Government is a con- 
solidated one, based on the existence of one people or community, and not on the existence of 
so many sovereign and independent States. The obedience owing to the Government of the 
United States by citizens of the States, is that which is required by tho act of the sov- 
ereign in the Constitution of the United States, and of course cannot be inconsistent with that 
which is due to the States. Otherwise, it would be a government of the most odious chai-acter, 
by which a corrupt, vicious, interested majority, might dispose of the lives, liberties and 
fortunes of the smaller number, without check or control— than which it is impossible to 
conceive a tyranny more hateful, or a despotism more absolute. The actual state of things 
proves it. For years, many of the States of this Union have been most earnestly remonstrat- 
ing agamst certain proceedings of Congress, avowing at the same time their unalterable 
resolution not to submit to them— regardless of consequences, this Government has moved on 
with a fixedness of pmi.n-. Miiirl] almost extinguished all hope of reform or amelioration, 
until one of the coiuiilainiim" ,-tati ,s has resolved to submit no longer. In this extremity we 
find ourselves ; and, instead of calmly and deliberately reviewing the whole ground, for the 
purpose of deciding whether we are in all things on the side of right, justice and the 
Constitution, before the sword is drawn, we begin by denying to that State, and of course to 
all other States, any rights whatsoever that are in their estimate of the least value ; and 



* Nothing is more strikingly illustrative than the use of the word "their," which cannot be 
relative to a singular noun ; but must be relative to the word " States," against which alone an 
act of treason could be committed. It would not t)e English, to say, in the Constitution of 
France, treason shall consist in levying war against France, and adhering to their enemies 
— the word, its or her, would have been employed as relative to a single nation. 



APPENDIX. 



vn. 



above all, their right of sovereignty, without which they cousidur theinaelves, as all the world 
must consider them, nothing more than petty corporations, the members of which are bound to 
the Government of the United States, by a paramount, indissoluble allegiance, in virtue of which, 
they are (members, officers and all,) amenable to it, on charges of high treason, and punish- 
able accordinglj'. I think, according to the doctrines of the day, the most important right 
conceded to them is the right to petition and remonstrate. Having thus degraded the 
States, they resolve to di-aw the sword : for one, I cannot go with tliem. I cannot go with 
them, until I satisfy myself, that in all things they are strictly right : as long as there is a 
shadow or suspicion of wrong, I will not go with them to shed blood. If they were right 
beyond doubt, I would defer it to the last m.oment, and then I would execute the laws only 
against those who unlawfully resist them; against those who resist by commission and 
authority from a State, I would not. You shed blood without executing the laws, because you 
force the State out of the Union, and place her out of the reach of the laws. Let those who 
please to indulge iu the revery of keeping this Union by force, go on in their mad career. 
Deity can do any thing : It can arrest the motion of the planets, and turn the sun into blood ; 
it can e.xtinguish the fixed stars, and make darkness cover the fece of the heayens ; but it is 
infinitely more easy for Deity to accomplish this, than for the Government of the United States 
to keep in its orbit, against its will, one of the States of this Union. 

Let the State, therefore, bo ever so vicious or wicked in its designs, I n ould forbear the 
resort to bloody measures, leaving her peaceably to depart the Union, as a nuisance to be 
gotten rid of, or as a prodigal, the repentant return of which to the fold, might one day be 
hoped for. But how different is the actual state of things ! Four millions of people com- 
plain of the injustice and unconstitutionality of the laws, and we are ready to shed blood iu 
their defence. These laws are founded on asserted power to regulate the industry of the 
country. Now, if such a power is sustained for the General Government, nothing can render 
that Government more worthless and insupportable in the contemplation of all the American 
people, opposed to restraints, monopolies and privileges ; and it may expect, of course, that 
entire portion of them to bo embodied against it. Tliey would as soon think of making a 
Turkish bashaw the regulator of their industry, as the Congress of the United States ; and 
for the simple reason, that, for flagrant abuses one could be made responsible ; whereas, the 
Congress, by its multitude, is as irresponsible as the most multitudinous assembly, where the inno- 
cent cannot be separated from the guilty ; and the public vengeance, if it fall at all, must fall 
alike upon the just and the unjust. Why is it, therefore, that, on a disputed question of doubt- 
ful right, or justice, or constitutionality, Congress will run the hazard of a civil war, 
when, by an easy operation, not costing them four days, they can adjust the controversy ? The 
Union is to be lost by a squeamish delicacy, or a reckless obstinacy. The Lilliputian will not 
yield to the Brobdignag, and the Brobdignag will not make a concession of justice to the Lilli- 
putian. The twenty-three States say to the twenty -fourth, if we do nut take your blood as an 
atonement and propitiation for tlie rashness and intemperance of your conduct, we will be set 
down in history as cowards. Shame! Shame! Is it not enough for the stability of the Union, that 
the laws will, in ordinary cases, be peacefully executed by the courts of justice, and that, in ex- 
traordinary cases, they will be enforced, by all means, against unlawful obstructions and assem- 
blages? To attempt their execution, by military power, against a State, is almost the only mode 
by which a State can be driven from the Union. A single State will not withdraw, until rendered 
desperate by the madness or tyranny of the General Government. A single State cannot 
maintain her independence ; and, therefore, could not hope long to maintain her liberty. Her 
rights and obligations, as an isolated sovereign, would devolve on her very great expense, and 
expose her to difficulties and troubles from which the greatest wisdojn could not exempt her. 

The Union is miich more exposed to danger, by a combination of States, who could maintain 
independence and liberty, at a cheaper rate, and with better security against vexatious and 
humiliating annoyances from abroad ; and, when such combinations happen, what will their 
denial of the right to secede avail? Would they take sides with thirteen weak States against 
eleven strong ones, and make war to preserve the Union? This would, indeed, present om- 
puissant Government in a light of no enviable majesty and supremacy, and is only an instance, 
among very many of analogous character, to show how much this Union must depend, for its 
duration, upon moderation and mutual concession. The power is asserted, to protect United 
States officers, m all cases which may arise under the laws of the United States, by assertmg 
for the United States Courts, exclusive cruninal jurisdiction, even where the parties are citizens 



Vm. APPENDIX- 

of the same State. \ow, no such power can bo derived iu crhiiiual cases, but by construction ; 
and thus it is, in a crisis like the present, the criminal jurisdiction of a State, always contem- 
plated as a paramount interest, is attempted to be -wrested from it, and transferred to thepai-ty 
whose long and continued infractions of the Constitution, in other respects, have produced this 
crisis; so tliat, by construing the words, "all cases in law and equity," to mean criminal as well 
as civil cases, the power may be claimed to authorize the commission, by the citizen of a State, 
of an act of treason against that State, and who would bo sure to find his justification and 
acquittal before the tribunals of the United States, because he had acted in obedience to a law 
which they were bound to adjudge to be the supreme law, &c., &c., &c. Now -what is the 
amount of all this ? It is : 

1st. That the exercise of certain powers, which would otherwise have been exercised by the 
States, has been granted to the Government of the Vnited States. 

2nd. That it has all the means admissible to any Government to carry those powers into 
effect. 

3rd. Those powers have been derived from the sovereignty of the States, and were derivable 
from no other source; that such sovereignty is, notwithstanding, unimpaired and undiminished 
— the Government acting as a conmion agent or servant, merely, to carry them into effect. 

4tli. That, being so derived, the Government of the United States being charged with their 
execution, is of inferior authority to the Constitution which confers them ; which is itself in- 
ferior and subordinate to the sovereign which created it. 

oth. That, the Constitution of the United States being a compact, contract or agreement, 
between sovereigns, equal in all respects, the parties to it are bound in good faith, each to the 
others, and according to the terms and letter'of the Instrument, to abide by it, and to fulfil its 
obligations, without any qualifications, save 

6th. That which results from a still higher authority, the law of God and nature, by 
which law the sovereign power is bound to watch over, and talce care of, to defend and preserve 
the State or community from which it is inseparable. 

7th. That when, by the action of the common agent or Government, the safety, happiness 
and interests of a State are endangered, it is the right, and becomes the duty, of the sovereign 
power, to interfere for its socuritj' — that such interference being justifiable under the public 
law when the action shall have been constitutional, is the more justifiable when tlic action 
shall liave been unconstitutional, null, and void. 

Sth. That the States cannot, even by their sovereignty, bind themselves forever by engage- 
ments, stipulations or contracts, of any kind, but with the qualifications and reservations 
implied under the higher sanctions of the public law, which admits many causes of justification 
for the non-observance, non-fulfillment or violation, of the most solemn compacts. That it 
is enough that every generation should be permitted to bind itself j but that the idea of the 
power or competency of one generation to bind all successive generations, is unnatural and 
preposterous. 

9th. That it is more reasonable and just to confide the ultimate decision on the rights and 
obligations of the compact, to the State sovereign, than to the Supreme Court or any other 
tribunal, the first being indeed supreme, and the last only the , creatm-e of a creature, whose 
decision must, finally, from the nature of things, bo subjected to the revision of the creator of 
all. 

10th. That the Government of the United States is authorized to make war only on foreign 
powers, and not upon the States ; that if not so, the Government of the United States, the 
common agent of all, might be found on the side of twelve States, making war against the 
other twelve; thus illustrating its paternal care over union, justice, domestic tranquillity, 
general welfare and liberty, as enumerated in the preamble to the Constitution, and all in the 
name of the people of the United States. 

11th. That the allegiance of the citizen, primary and paramount, is due to the State or 
sovereign. That obedience is due to the Government, as it represents the sovereign, and, as 
it is ordained by the sovereign; and, of course no obedience can bo claimed by the Govern- 
ment inconsistent with the allegiance due the sovereign. 

12th. That, admitting the above propositions to bo true, the Government of the United 
States is still tho strongest government in the world, for all the purposes for which it was con- 
stituted — that being a Government founded on consent, and supported by opinion, it must, 
to be sustained by that consent and opinion, be just and righteous ; that it can never fail to be 



APPENDIX. I^. 

.just and righteous, so long as its action conforms to the strict letter of the Constitution— that 
the slightest departure from that letter, is an abuse, whether it .amounts to usurpation, or the 
exercise of doubtful powers, and may and will give rise to complaint, to discontent, and with 
a people so enlightened and free as ours, eventually to resistance. 

13th. That a State, for tlio violation of the articles of compact, is responsible under the 
'public law to the other States, and may, as between sovereigns, be compelled to make repara- 
tion for any injury or damage which may ensue to them in consequence of such violation ; 
and that this is one of the great securities against hasty and precipitate action on the part of 
the States. 

14th. That the words, " we the people," in the Constitution, are to be construed as mean- 
ing the people of the several States, who alone, in virtue of their sovereignty, were 
capable of forming Governments ; and that all the powers conferred by all of them on the 
Federal Government, as well as all tlie powers retained to be exercised by themselves, are only 
such powers as each State would have possessed and exercised, if there had been no Constitu- 
tion or Union ; and, therefore, that the Federal Government has no more authority than it 
would have had, if the same powers had been conferred by a single State. 
Your affectionate friend, 

G. M. Tkolp. 



[At the annual session of 1832, the Gener.al Assembly of Georgia adopted a preamble, looking 
to an amendment of the Federal Constitution, in the matter of " the principle Involved in a 
Tariff for the direct protection of domestic industry," and " a system of Federal taxation," 
which should bo " equal in its operation,'' &c.; audit passed a resolution, making "application 
to the Congress of the United States, for the call of a convention of the people, to amend the 
Constitution aforesaid, in the particulars herein enumerated, and in such others as the people 
of the other States may deem «.e-..lful of amendment." It was in reference to this action of 
the Legislatui-e, that the following letter to Major John Moore, of Oglethorpe county, vras 
written. It was published in tlic Southern Kecordcr, of .^Oth January, 1833.] 

Wasuington, Doc. 26th, 1832. 

Dear Sir : What could have induced our people to think of holding a general convention of 
the States? Have they resolved to enter the lion's den, from which no returning footsteps can 
ever be seen ? Is not the Constitution good enough for them ?— or is it so bad that they would 
commit it to the hands of their enemies to fashion it as they will? The power to make 
amendments was given to answer no such exigency as the present ; it was given to make that 
instrument more perfect, when, by the workings of the Government, experience having de- 
tected defects to be cured and evils to be remedied, the application of it could be made by 
general concurrence, I'.nd without hazr.vd to the public peace. Hence it was that so soon as 
it was seen that a State might, by construction, be sued by an individual, an ameadment was 
proposed and carried to correct the evil. So, too, when it became apparent that the designa- 
tion of the electoral vote fur President and Vice-President, was necessary to preserve the 
harmony of the States, the States concurred in an amendnrent accordingly; and so, tao, when 
a young prince was born of an American alliance with tlio Bonaparte fajiil}', the States con- 
curred in an amendment excluding from office any citizen who should accept a title of nobility 
or honor, from any Emperor, King, Prince or foreign power. Tliosc several amendments 
were made in .'ae true spirit of the Constitution. At this moment, public sentiment is favor- 
ing two proposed .amendments, which I think would be an improvement of that instrument: 
one, to limit th? President to a single term ; the other, to prohibit the appointment of mem- 
bers of Congress to office, during the period for which they shall have been elected. 

Now, by a sudden and very strange after-thought, as it seems to mo, this provision of the 
Constitution is to bo made applicable, in times of excitement, to great and extraordinary 
exigencies :' so that, whenever Ave or six States shall become dissatisfied with the Constitu- 
tion, they may command the rest to assemble in convention, to alter, new-model or amend it. 
As I do not read any thing like this in that instrument, and as our old Eepublican doctrine 
rejects every power but that derived from its strict letter, opposed to all construction, I can- 
not unite with our fellow-citizens in the call of a General Convention. If the power U 
granted, it must be an efficient, not a nugatory, power. The minority States must command 
B 



X, APPENDIX. 

the majority States to assemble, and it must be the duty of tlie majority States to obey; they 
cannot, by silence, or evasion, or direct negatioUj escape. If they refuse, if they evade, 
if they are silent, it must be shown how, according to the letter of the Constitution, that 
silence or evasion or negation is to be taken. Is a sovereign State compell ible, at the point 
of the bayonet, to answi r aye or no ? And how is silence to be construed ? It is easy to see 
how a majority, claiming a given power, may ask the minority to concur in making that* 
power more explicitly a part of the Constitution; but it is difficult to understand how a 
minority, protesting against the exercise of the power, can constrain the majority, either to 
make it a part of the Constitution, or to abandon it, unless it can be shown that the Consti- 
tution has so expressly provided, &c. 

The Congress of the United States, supported by public sentiment, has, for a long time, by 
abuses and usurpations, so disfigured and disgraced the Constitution, that if all hope of its 
restoration were abandoned, it woulii be mattter for gr.ive consideration whether that instiu- 
ment was not utterly destroyed, and had, in every legal and moral contemplation of the 
subject, ceased to be binding on the parties to it. It is inconceivable how, in the eye of 
justice, a compact between two or more parties could be so construed as that the one party 
should be bound, ;md the other free. The immutable law is that all are bound or .^11 are 
free. Nevertheless, a majority of Congress, whether considered as a mere agent to carry 
the powers expressly delegated into effect, or not, have assumed the right to interpret the 
Constitution at pleasure ; and have so interpreted it, that whatever is resolvable into common 
defence and general welfare, has been claimed as a fair and legitimate power to be exercised 
by the General Government, until, at last, instead of a limited government for defined pur- 
poses, we have had one either actually engrossing or claiming to engross all the powers 
belonging to any government, and even some which ought not to belong to any. Now, it is 
under such circumstances, my good Sir, that you propose to go into a convention of the 
States, either general ov special — if into & General Convention, then j'ou must be prepared to 
receive, at the hands of the majority, a consolidated government, one and indivisible, a denial 
to the States (if permitted to exist at all,) of even the shadow of sovereignty, and, of course, 
a formal reclamation of all those rights and privileges, which, in the exchange of equivalents, 
you had expressly reserved as attaching essentially to your peculiar position and condition: — 
if into a special Convention, then you must be prepared for a prompt rejection of your 
amendatory propositions, (if these look to a furthersecurity for your rights and interests,) and 
eventually for the re-assertion and incorporation into the Constitution, of the very powers so 
long and strenuously denied by you, and long claimed and exercised by them. The 
indications of public sentiment at this moment are unerring, that an overwhelming majority 
favors a consolidated government; and it may behoove you, in all wisdom, to prepare, not for an 
improvement of your condition, but fur a Csesar and the purple. If, therefore, it b ■ true, that 
you are to come out of a convention, shorn and despoiled, it may be well to think of some 
other and better course, i.y which the perils of the day are to be turned aside. Can you think of 
any better than the old Kepublican landmarks, by which, so far, although we have not escaptd 
from storms, we have from shipwi'eck ? You want no better Constitution, if the government 
be administered according to its letter— no body asks more than justice ; and justice it 
secures, so far as written instruments can secure it. For all external relations, the govern- 
ment is stronger than the strongest in the world — its strength depends not loss on the 
integrity of the States, than on that common consent and rnlightened opinion, on which 
all our institutions are founded, and by which they must be held together: and what, after 
all, is t'.e foundation of these, but justice, justice, justice ?— all that the right of representation 
can give, it secures. Within the pale and letter of the Constitution, the man of Massachusetts 
is, to to be su'e, as much our representative in Congress as the man of Georgia — beyond that 
pale and letter, however, he is as much a stranger as the representative of Scotland or 
Ireland in the British Parliament ; and this is all, in this respect, that we could ask. Are 
there no means, then, by which Congress can be held to the letter of the Constitution? I 
answer, no constitutional means but the ballot lax, unless the power of amendment, in the 
sense I have interpreted it, be so considered. The right of petition, of remonstrance, of discus- 
sion, are only auxiliaries by which the one or the other may be supported. But if these fail; 
if that power which decrees its own supremacy, perseveres to enforce it ; must every thing 
yield to force? Force may vanquish everything — reason, right, truth, justice ; and it is 
becausa foixe may do so, that we have erected barriers to defend reason, right, truth and 



APPENDIX. XI. 

justice. Iliese barriers are the sovereign States of this UQlon, which, whatever the old fed- 
eralists and monarchy men may say of them, were absolute sovereigns on the Declaration of 
Independence, are sovereigns now, and will remain so, until, by the voluntary surrender of 
their sovereignty, they please to malce themselves slaves — but I trust, of all who shall make 
that surrender, Georgia will be the Inst. 

But, you will ask, how is this doctrine to work? 1 see no more difficulty than is inseparable 
from the management of all human aflairs. You have the passions and interests of men to 
encounter at every step ; and these must be so met, as to make them work rather for good 
than for evil. 

For ordinary grievances, we have said there is no constitutional remedy but the ballot-box 
. — for extraordinary and extreme ones, there is no remedy but the sovereign power of the 
States ; and in extreme cases, you repose yourself upon the sovereign power, for the very rea- 
son that the constitutional remedy fails. This sovereign pov.-er, at last, is in communities little 
more than the right of self-defence and self preservation— of the exercise of which, it is the 
sole judge, because, in this respsct, it is independent as well as sovereign. It acknowledges no 
law but the law of nature and nations, which, in the settlement f controversies between States, 
acUnowl dges no means hnt negotiation and fm-ce. Shall we stop here to inquire which will 
serve us best, in the long run, tlie doctrine which acknowledges the sovereignty of the 
Statt-'s; which recognizes, in extreme cases, the right of this sovereignty to defend itself, to ne- 
gotiate, to make treaties; which, in a spirit of amity that consigns the pa^t to obllviim, will 
re unite dissevered States, who, being generous enemies, are, once more, and on that account, 
cordial, and, perhaps, inse^aralile friends ; or that which admits the absolut" supremacy of the 
Federal Government, its riglit to whip a State into the Union, .and to hold it there forever, by brute 
force ? I know it is said this power in the States is inconsistent with the power confided to the 
Federal Government ; that for light and trivial causes. States may and will have recourse to it, by 
which the Union will be constantly agitated, and. finally, dissolved. Let us see if this apprehen- 
sion is well founded. A State has the undoubted right, (undoubted even yet.) to change \U own 
Government at pleasure, consulting only its interests and happiness, regulating all its internal 
concerns, with its right of soil and juri-diction so absolute that the Federal Government cannot 
claim to erect an arsenal or fort or dock-yard within its limits, without >rs express consent. Ilerf , 
then, is a commimity, by the power of self-government, made free and happy at home, wanting, 
for the consummation of that happiness, scarcely anythingbut protection against powers strong- 
er than itself. Will these be put to hazard for light and trivi.al causes? Reason says no— tlio 
public law says no. The public law forbids the presumption that commu'iities will act im- 
prudently—it presumes them to be governed by a sound discretion— not that they are alwa; s 
so governed, but that their acts alone shall speak for them. Experience justifies the public 
law. Fifty years of Union, without convulsion, is no trifling evidence of intelligence, of pru- 
dence, of subordination, uf contentment. How many guarantees, besides, are to bo found 
ag linst hasty and inconsiderate action, by which great blessings are to be lost. An insulated 
State may, for a moment, rescue liberty ; but liberty is not ti be maintained without independ- 
ence, and independence cannot long be maintained by an insulated State. A solitary State 
resting on its own limited resources, with great wants for internal and external objects, sur- 
rounded by other States, (united for common defence,) must be exposed to evils and 
annoyances, from which the wisest councils cannot exempt her. Possessing sovereign rights, 
herself, she must so exercise those rights as not to interfere with the sovereign rights of 
others. The right of way and of /; e'- passage, the regulation of trade and commerce, so apt to 
conflict with those of others, framed in a different spirit — these, and many of kindi-ed charac- 
ter would be sources of endless embarrassment and vexatinn. I would rather say, upon the 
whole, that the States would net secede for light and trivial causes— that grave and weighty 
considerations alone could influence them — that only some grievous opprsssion or frightful 
tyranny, driving them to despair, could divide them from the Union. Are there not some 
reasons for this belief? We hear theory of Union Union, from all quarter . as if there were 
nothing left in this world worth preserving, but Union— so that th; friends of liberty and 
union may well doubt whether the people love liberty less or union most. See what has been 
submitted to for many years, with a degreee of patience and forbearance, which might be con- 
strued into something not to be named: Unnecessiry taxes, to m■^k<^ a splendid, of what was 
designed to be a simple and economical, Government — the taxes levied on the many to pro- 
mote the interests of the few— the revenues distributed for objects of Internal Improvement, 



xn. APPENDIX. 



where the taxes v/eie not levied— every scheme aud device for the extravagant expenditure of 
pnblic moneys — dormant claims on the Government revived, and pension systems established 
on principles so loose, as to offer the strongest temptations to fraud and perjury. As if it were not 
enough for tho Federal Government to regulate commerce, which it is authorized to do, it 
assumes the care and regulation of manufactures : and then tlio transition is easy to the care 
and regulation of agriculture — so is the transition, sometimes, from the grave to the ridicnlous. 
Who, of the Convention who framed the Constitution, would have believed it possible, that 
even in our time committees of agriculture would have been organized in both Houses of 
Congress, to instruct our people liow to sow and to reap, to weave and to spin, to millc 
and to churn ? It is because they employ themselves with all these follieg, abuses and usurpa- 
tions, that the Congress which should, in ordinary and peaceful times, dispatch its constitutional 
business in three short months, is occupied through five, six and seven ; and a portion, and n 
large portion too, of this time, devoted to the manoeuvres of factions, who seem to have been 
congregated here for the single purpose of making Presidents, to make the leaders of thos,, 
factions Presidents in turn. Ai'e not these things, good Sir, enough to disturb the harmony of 
the States ? If a single State, fretted and tortured by such abominations, shall, by an unwise 
and hasty movement, resolve to shake them off, is she to be bound, neck and heels, and con- 
signed to the Cave of Trcphouius or the Cyclops? The almost universal answer is, yes, yes ! 
down w.'th the rebels, down with the traitor fctate. But whose turn comes nest? If the 
Federal Government is not stopped in its career of encroachment, by some counteractive 
agent, what, reasoning from what has been done to what may be done, will it not do? It 
gives countenance to colonization and other voluntary associations, which keep in ferment 
large sections of countrj', which, by a single false movement, would be excited to the most 
desperate resistance. It may, for any thing we know, pass acts of attainder and proscription, 
by which, masses of society may be cut off. It has, on occasions, stopped the liberty of speech 
and of the press. It may ordain a State religion, or decree a universal emancipation. Its 
supreme judicial tribunal, which, it contends, is, in the last resort, to pass on the constitution- 
ality of all laws, may send its warrants into the States, commanding its marshals to hang up, 
by the lamp posts, A., B. and C. These, you will say, are extreme cases. So they are. It may 
pronounce null and void, charters by which States claim their rights of soil, jarisdiction and 
sovereignty. It may erect one sovereignty within another. It may decide that one portion 
of the community, within the chartered limits of a State, is sovereign and independent, and 
entitled to the right of self-government. It may control the criminal jurisdiction and 
arrest the criminal laws of a State by writs of error and appeal. Are these, too, extreme 
cases ? If they are, extreme cases require extreme remedies; and if these are to be sought 
in the power of the States, it is because theStates are sovereign, and may protect and defend 
themselves. But does this,consist with that unity, one and indivisible, claimed for the United 
States as a nation ? Certainly not. But then it becomes those who make that claim, at the 
same time to make it good. For ourselves, we protest against it, as most wild, extravagant 
and fallacious. The States formed the Government of t he United States — the States ratified 
It. From that day to this, it exists and breathes but by permission of the States. Though 
three-fourths of the States are necessary to amend or alter it, a majority, or less than a ma- 
jority may dissolve it. If the States refuse Electors of Prpoident, it is prostrate. If they 
refuse their Senators, it stops. If they withhold their Kepresentatives, it is the same thing. 
There is, indeed, no one act required of the people of the United St.ites, as one people, either 
to begin it, to conduct it, or to end it — it would be just' as rational to make the Congress of 
Vienna a nation, deriving its authority from the jjeople of all Europe. The old confederation 
must have been a confederation of States ; for I have never yet heard of a confederation of 
the people. The confederation was abandoned for the new government, because it had no 
power to coerce the States. But was the new government adopted to coerce the States? 
Certainly not. It was adopted to coerce inthviduals, for the very reason that States 
could not be coerced. The statesmen of that day perceived that every thing was gained by 
making a government strong enough to operate effectually on individuals — that the idea of 
coercing States was an absurdity, and that the new government would answer all the ends 
of its creation, without the least danger of collision, sq long as it confined itself to its consti- 
tutional limits. 

It is the departure from those limits ; it is tlie exercise of powers not delegated: it is the 



APPENDIX. xiir. 

c'X;ercise of doubtful powers, equally prohibited by the Constitution, Nvliioh has at auv 
time brought the General GoTernment into collision with the States. 

Inscribbling thusmuch, I thinki may have answered, out of order, no doubt, all your 
inquiries. The result, according to my poor opinion, is, that there is no power given by the 
Constitution to resist the laws of the United States. 

The only Constitutional remedy for unconstitutional laws, is the ballot-box. 

Amendments of the Constitution, petition, remonstrance, conventions, correspondence and 
consultations of the States — these (if you please to call them remedies,) are not unconstitu- 
tional. 

Under a government founded on consent and oph:ion. evils are to be borne as long as pvjs- 
sible. 

The States, in virtue of tlieir sovereignty, when evil=! are no longer supportable, naist judge 
the evil and the remedy. 

The sovereign knows but two modes of settling controversies, negotiation and war. 

Negotiation admits of arbitration ; and conti oversies may be referred to other States ; but this 
is by consent, and not by the Constitution. It is, of course, not permissible to one of ihe parties 
to refer it to its own Courts and Juries. 

When States cease to have an interest in the Union, or suC'or extreme oppression, it is better 
that they .withdraw peaceablj^, than that blood should be shed in contests, A\-hich seldom 
decide any thing, and which arc apt to separate the parties forever. 

As State; may do very imprudent'y and unwisely, wUat they have a right to do, it 
becon.cs them to act very deliberately and cautiously ; because it is lawful for other States to 
imite against them to compel a fulfilment of their obligations under the public law. 

You ask what Georgia ought to do? My worthless opinions had been given on former occa- 
sion3,and you know what u?e has been made of them. Those opinions were unchanged, and 
are, as I think, unchangeable— they amounted to this : if the abuses and usurpations, of which 
we complain, are continued, and become the settled policy of the Government, the States 
liaving identical interests, ought to withdraw— but it was indispensable to a movement liki 
this, that there should be union ; that this union should be the result of a deep and settled 
conviction, that such policy was inconsistent with the paramount peace, interest, prosperity 
and happiness of the State ; and not a temporary union produced by an artificial excitement. 
A united peojjle, even of one State, might rescue liberty for a time ; but, without the means of 
maintaining independence, liberty could not be preserved. 

It was necessary, therefore, that other States having common interests, should be prepared 
to tliink and act with us ; and it was altogether proper, that, for this purpose, a system of 
correspondence and consultation should be organized, as the beat means of producing union. 
3Iy own belief was, that the Tariff wovdd not yield, and could not be made to yield, but to 
some interest'stronger than the interest in manufactures ; and I knew but one that was so, 
and that was the interest in Union. It could not be doubted that the Northern States were as 
much concerned in preserving the Union as ourselves ; and it was altogether fair, that, in the 
last rasort, we should present to thorn the plain alternative, either " to return to the bargain 
and stick to the bargain, or give up,the Union." If, unhappily, it should turn out that they 
take more interest in manufactures than in Union, it is my deliberate opinion the Union 
is not worth preserving. In all this we have considered not so much what might be done, and 
rightfully done, by the sovereign States of this Union, as what may be wisely done. Do what 
we may, and let what of evil come, we will have the consolation, that, from the beginning to 
the end, we have been passive subjects, and the adverse party active agents. The abuses and 
usurp.itions practiced, and the burdens imposed, have been of a positive character — we have 
done nothing but beg relief from them. 

You have insisted on my opinions, and I have given them. No one could ask them with 
more propriety than yourself. You have been, all your life, a uniform, consistent Republican, 
and as much devoted to the prosperity of the State, and States too, ao any man in it. The 
stake which you and all of your name and family have in it, is pledge sufficient for your 
loyalty and discretion ; and the passion for liberty that was born with you, is absolute 
security that you cannot be a slave. 

Your friend. 

U. M. Teocp. 



XIV. APPENDIX. 

[The following letter is the one to which reference is made in the fourteenth chapter of thii 
work, as relating to the Currency question.] 



Laukuns County, Georgia, May 16th, 1840. 
My Deal- Sir: It is a long time since I have taken any part in President-making. When 
Mr. Crawford was smitten by the hand of Providence, I advised my friends at Washington to 
take np Mr. Macon. He was a plain farmer, of Kevolutionary merit, of sound common sense 
\7ith great knowledge of men and things, and of sufficient political experience to administer 
the Government of the United States. He could say no, when it was fitting, and was no 
dealer in ifs. It struck me it would do well for an experiment at least, and that if it succeeded 
the people of the United States might contract a taste for such men, rather than for your 
well-trained and thorough-bred politicians. One thing would have been certain — you would 
have had no violations of the Constitution, or other abuses, to complain of, and the Govern- 
ment would have been known and felt only in its salutary, constitutional action. But these 
were so many objections to him. 

If I failed in my second trial of President-making, surely you would not have me, at this 
time of day, to join in the cry of Loafers, Loco Focos, Shinplastcrs, Log Cabin, Hard Cider, and 
the like— let those who have a fancy for such things, settle the matter among them— they who 
havf the least to do with* it, always excepting a fraction of the office-hunters, will bo the better 
off. 

As to the use and abuse of my name in connection with tlie same office, all I have to say is, 
that if those who usid it were ganuine Stats Rights men, they had a right to use it, and were 
the only men who had — if they used it for the otiBce, they were wrong — if they used it be- 
cause they could not consistently vote for either of the persons who were the only candidates- 
for it, then they were right, and then they were thrice welcome to use and abuse it. I must 
confess the use did givs me some annoyance ; but that was personal, and not worth a com- 
pliint; the abuse in a general sense, I had been U53d to, and, therefore, could bear with it ; 
but, in the sense which excited your friendly indignation, it was indeed the most signal and 
heart-felt gratification. 

The relation in which you have stood, and the warm feelings constantly manifested toward 
me, give you a claim to my poor poliiical opinions, when you please to ask them ; and you 
have them briefly, but frankly. 

What is called the sub-Treasury, (if it means the dealing by the Government in gold and 
silver, exclusively,) I consider not only constitutional, but an extremely wise and very expe- 
dient measure. It ought never to have been a dealer in any thing else— at least, such has been 
always my opinion. I thought the Coustitution required it : and it seemed to me to be most 
unreasonable, that a government which was compelled to pay all its rfc&<s in gold and silver, 
should, at the same time, be compelled to receive any or every kind of pa;jer, which might be, 
called money, in payment of debts due to itself. You would, no doubt, at this moment, feel it 
somewhat comfortable and refreshing to look upon a grea^; dealer in gold and silver, a dealer 
without premium and without discount, and therefore without profit ; dealing to the amount 
of many millions per annum, .and to the amount of many thousands per diem, constantly 
receiving and as constantly paying out. The gratification of the senses, in such sad times, 
would be something; and the chance of a dime tindiag its way to your pocket, would be some- 
thing more; but if this dealer so dealt, that we soon began to see we could command as many 
dimes as would do for market money, we would feel we had derived a precious benefit by his 
dealing, and that indeed a benefit had fallen upon the country. If the dealer happened so 
to deal, as to supply, constantly and uniformly, a small-change circulation, or pocket money, 
sufficient for the every day wants and business of life, then, indeed, a new era would have 
opened, which the past had never seen; which would be in glaring contrast with the present, 
and which the future would hail with thanksgiving and praise ; and the more joyously, as 
what was, will be no more, and what is, will be and must be forever, at least as long as the 
dealer lasts and deals in gold and silver exclusively. Now, if this can be accomplished by a 
great dealer, it is more likely to be accomplished by the Federal Government than by any 
other agency we know anything about. 1st, its dealings will be large enough. 2dly, it will 
be to the eame amount, or nearly so, from year to year, in times of peace increasing gradually, 



APPENDIX. X^% 

perhaps In proportion to an increasing population, and a consequently increasing espendi- 
tiii'e. 3dly, paying and receiving equal amounts in equal times, or nearly so, the small change 
circulation could never be suddenly contracted or enlarged. I will not pretend to say what 
ths amount of email change in circulation should bo in a such a country; it is sufficient, if 
it give you only the change for a shin of beef to the butcher, and a loaf of bread to the baker, 
per diem. But it must necessarily give a great deal more— perhaps all we want. Stating the 
average revenue and expenditure at twenty millions, some four or five millions of specie will 
suffice to carry on the annual operation ; the balance in the country, whether it be forty, fifty, 
sixty or seventy millions, will be left to sustain the paper, which, whether it amounts to 
one hundred and twenty or two hundred and ten millions, will be quite ample fur all the 
demands of trade and commerce — perhaps quite enough to satisfy the cravings of the most ex- 
travagant of the paper-monsy lovers. This paper will be so much the sounder than it would 
otherwise be, because, instead of comparing paper with paper, as you are now forced to do, 
you would compare it with an ever present standard of gold and silver. An additional and 
certain effect of a merely metallic currency for governmental purposes, would be the check it 
would furnish to the extravagances and aberrations of Government, an effect not to be lightly 
estimated. 

You perceive I am sanguine in my predictions of the salutary consequences of this much 
condemned measure, of which you have a simple statement of mv opinion or belief, without 
the argument. I supposed you asked no more. An argument on a financial subject is not 
worth much ; what would appear a good system on paper, miglit turn out to bo a bad one 
in practice, and an indifferent or objectionable one on paper, a very good one in practice; 
but an argument against a system, founded on the dishonesty of mankind, is a very false one; 
men must carry into effect systems ; men must collect and men must disburse the public 
revenue ; and it matters nothing whether that revenue be of gold and silver or of paper. 
If, indeed, the paper be good for nothing, that is sufficient security against embezzlement ; if 
equally good, it is more easy of embezzlement than gold and silver. Will it matter much if 
the man who collect and disburse, happen to bo Whigs or Democrats? I have pretty much 
the same confidence in both ; the one set have been already there to steal and plunder; the 
other have yet lo come. 

From this project to deal in gold and silver, I have never been able to conjecture how, by 
any possibility, loss or detriment can accrue to any body. Is it true the mass of the com- 
munity is so corrupt, that it is willing to deal in nothing but bad paper ; or do the politicians 
persuade them they will have a bank, the extinguisher of all other banks, whose pap-r 
will be equal to gold and silver ? Instead of loss or detriment, I have seen no inconvenience 
to result to any body, except indeed, in the first instance, to the merchant : to him it will be a 
novel operation, for a time, but for a short time ; if it costs him more trouble and expense t o bo 
always ready to meet the custom-house demand, he knows how to charge that expense to his 
customer ; and, n;y word upon it, tlje consumer of his merchandise will be the last to com- 
plain, if ho sees nothing in an insignificant chaige, but a redemption from evil suffering, and 
a restoration to the comforts and enjoyments of life, to which, in every country, the pocket and 
traveling money in gold and silver coinage so eminently contribute. The very fraction of a 
per cent., charged by the merchant, for his trouble and expense of keeping gold and silver to 
answer occasional demands, will be more than repaid by the direct tendency of the operation 
to keep that gold andsilver at home, which might otherwise go abroad: it will be by so much 
the more valuable at home, and therefore cannot leave the country. 

But enough ; every body tires of this dry and hitherto unproductive suliject. The President 
should long since have compelled his party to carry out the measure. 
Very sincerely and truly, 

G. 31. Tkoup. 



[The tvro next letters are those addressed to the gentleman at Mobile, and to whicli reference 
's made in the fourteenth chapter of this work.] 

ValDOSTA, L.iUEE.VS COCNTT, GEORGIA, 15th Sept. ISiO. 

My Dear Sir : I have just received and read, with great pleasure, your excellent letter of 
tbeZndinst. Its complimentary part evinced so much of disinterestedness and sincerity, that 
I rose from its perusal, thinking better of myself, and almost believing that indeed I had done 



XVl. APPENDIX. 

some little sorrice to the State. A few hours before the receipt of it, the Montgomery letters 
came to hand, announcing the Barbecue ; and the committee of invitation were so kind as to 
make the sarro request which yourself, from the best motives in the world, have made. You 
may conceive the reluctan -e and unfeigned regret with which I was obliged to decline a com- 
pliance with theirs, and now to decline a compliance with yours. The general suggestion in 
my ' ;tter, was the disinclination, amounting almost to abhorrence, to appearing in the news- 
papers so often, and especially upon the same subject, as if I had resolved to force my poor 
opinions on a tired and unwilling public. I had given my views, in and out of Congress, for- 
merly and recently, and so franklj', and I trust so intelligibly, that I began to indulge hope 
that for the future I might safely, even with my best friends, excuse myself from a repetition 
of what had, on former occasions, been received, frequently with ridicule, and always with 
abu,se. It is of no consequence, to me, who knows those views ; and therefore you arc at liberty 
to use them as you please, provided you keep me out of the newspapers. 

I will give you an illustration of fanaticism in the person of the good and gallant La Fayette. 
It was one of his vh-tues to be consistent, even in his faults— iiis heart was the milk of human 
kindness. He had passed by Mount Yernon, and shed tears — burning tears on the tomb of 
Washington. Y'ou received him, before that, with open arms, and exhausted your generous 
hospitalities upon him. In the same hour, he would have seen the throats of your women 
cut, and your streams run blood, smiling at the havoc he had made. He had been prime 
mover in the destiny of St. Domingo, and, to the last hour of his life, he sighed for a new St. 
Domingo. The irreligious and immoral French, now unable to govern themselves, are, by the 
legacy he bequeathed them, destroying their last colonies as they destroyed St. Domingo, and 
would draw the sword, at any moment, in union with the Federal Government, to destroy our 
Southern country. 

It is worse than useless to conceal anything from ourselves — it i.s far better to lay bare the 
naked truths, and in good time. Are we to surrender because the civilized world, and, it may 
be, more than one-half of oiu- own countrymen, are against us ? This is the only question worth 
considering — and, I begin, by answering No ! by no means. If you are divided, you can do 
nothing — perfect unanimity is not to be hoped for, but an approach to it might be realized ; 
what then ? I say a perfect preparedness for the last resoi't, by the establishment; in every 
State, without delay, of Military Schools, Founderies, Armories, Arsenals, Manufactories of 
powder, &c. Have you not seen that our adversaries are constantly growing stronger, and 
ourselves comparatively weaker, in all the elements of power — population — wealth — education 
—military resources of all kinds; and these sustained by a Government strong in its military 
and naval power— ready for combat at any time, and at any place, and already the terror of 
the world? Have you not remarked, al«o, that in the very proportion our weakness was dis- 
closed, in the same proportion our adversary advanced, until he assaults us to our teeth, and 
at our firesides? I sa}-, then, ceasing all bluster and bravado, prepare to meet them on that 
last field, in which, if you be well prepared, they will receive harder blows than they can give ; 
and they know it. General La Fayette would not have been deterred by the fear of death, 
from carrying into practice his anti-slavery notions ; but most men will; and it is only the 
dread of death, that in the United States will stay the hand or stop the machinations of the 
fanatic. That dread you must present to hijn, in a visible, palpablo form. They know you 
have courage ; but where is the flying artillery, the most formidable arm in modern warfiire 
— where the munitions, the arms, the discipline — and where the science to serve them in the 
field ? If united and ready for the last recourse, the Union might yet be saved by the very 
knowledge of our adversary, that, to a bloody field — more bloody than that of Ghengis or 
Tamerlauo — riight be added the loss of Union, and th.- loss of the very ol:aect they sek to 
accomplish. Yictory is not always to the strong ; and Alexaadcr conquered the world with 
little more than thirty thousand men. To be sure, if the abolitionists seek disunion, they iiiay 
have disunion, by peaceful means — nothing would be more easy, and as peaceful as easy, be- 
cause we want no better Constitution for our Government, than that which governs the abo- 
litionists and ourselves ; but if thi Union is to be dissolved by force — that is to say, if the 
abolitionists resolve to force emancipation, or to force dishonor on the Southern States by any 
act of Congress, then it is my decided opinion, that, with the military preparation here 
indicated, conjoined to a good volunteer, 'nstead of a militia, system, the States should march 
upon Washington, and dissolve the Government: and just as soon as such overt act of treason 
shall have been committed by Congress. 



APPENDIX. 



XVII. 



We have ahva.vs been hi the right— are still in the right, and I advise you to keep so. Tliey 
are the active agents of mischief and persecution : wo the passive subjects. There are 
good men on the other side of Mason and Dixon's line, and they might incline to the side of 
an innocent and injured people. Even their neutrality might be useful to us— so with the 
army and navy; the justice of our cause might divide them. I assure you, my dear sir, few- 
men would be more averse from this latter alternative, than myself; but I have never thought 
of any cure for our evil, short of it ; and if you cannot unitedly make up your minds for it or 
sometliing better, the talk about it only makes the matter worse. In this familiar and infor- 
mal scribbling manner. I write to j-ou, because I believe you would like it best. 

As long as wo maintain braggadocia stylo, the Northern people will laugh at us ; and I do 
no t care to be laughed at, and despoiled of what Vo know to be our own, at the same time . 
If the abolitionists do not wish disunion, they would keep us in the Union by the argument 
of Gen. Jackson. Onco in the Union, always in the Union, is the Federal argument ; but 
perhaps not as strong as Gen. Jackson '.s. I would like to be alwaj's well prepared to resist these 
arguments, whether ofifored in the form of paper or iron bullets. When the adversary 
becomes strong enough to alter the Constitution and abolish slaverj', what are yon to do ? You 
must submit, or withdraw, or resist: but withdrawal or resistance would be vain, without 
adequate preparedness. 

Without fatiguing you. f dismiss tlie heiirt-rending subject, with my best wishes for your 
Ileal th and happiness. 

li. M. TllOCV. 



\'.\.u)osTA, L.4.rRiixs Cocxiv, October 1st, 1849. 

My Dear Sir : I have deemed it best to submit a few general observations, in addition to 
those which I took occasion to ofter in answer to your lato very able, kind and friendly letter, 
and in elucidation of tliem. They embraced a few reasons or motives for declining, most re- 
spectfully, a very reasonable and most patriotic request, which, without a good reason, ought 
not to have been declined; and I was willing to submit to 5'our courtesy and generosity the 
sufficiency of the reasons. I superadded a word on the subject of remedy lor our present 
grievances, to which you wore pleased to invito my attention ; and now I take leave to trouble 
you with a second but very short letter, explanatory, a little more fully, of my poor opinions 
in connection with that remedy. 

The illustration of fanaticism in the character of Gen. La i'ayette, was not designed to de- 
tract any thing from the merits of that really excellent man. It was his fault— his blot— his 
sin, in our sight. In the sight of our adversary, it Avas his crowning jewel. At no period of 
our history has the South not suffered from the false opinions, or open treachery, of Southern 
men. It cost Mr. Jefferson a life of useful service to his country to compensate the injury 
done to his own South by his Notes on A'irgiuia ; and 3'our President, General Taylor, lias just 
escaped from his rcspousibilities by a trick. In despite of every thing, men will have their 
thoughts; and our Constitution, as it ought, gives freedom to the expre.ssion of them. May it 
always be so. But when the overt act follows the expression, the overt act being evil, and of 
the temptation of the dovil, then it is, that a matter of such concernment becomes a deeply 
agitating (piestion to .all concerned ; and the more, if such act be the act of a Government. 1( 
is then, that, in such a controversy as ours, the overt act is likely to prove an act of treason, 
and that the action on the one side should bo met by correspondent action on the other, and 
so I liave advised you to meet it. 

Now, the probable action of Congress will be to prevent you, by force of arms, from inhabiting 
territory of the United States with your negro property, where she has forbidden you to carry 
it. I say you have a right to go there with your negro property, and the act of forbidding it 
is an act of treason* against the South ; producing an actual state of war, by an open declara- 

'■■ I do not use the word in its legal acceptation. If we owe duties and obligations to the 
federal Government, this latter owes duties and obligations to the States ; and an act, tanta- 
mount to an act of war against tliem, is moral treason. 
C 



xviir. 



APPENDIX, 



tiou oil the part of the Federal Uovernmciit, .and making us flie defeiulants in that war.-i= It 
i;; not -n-orth our tiiiie to consider how Congi'ess derive tlieir power over the subject of slavery. 
They do not claim it as a jjower exercisable within the States — the most inveterate abolitionists 
renounce it — hut they claim it in the Territories, as if they had any more power over a subject 
of property there, than they had over the trial by jury — freedom of speech — of religion — of 
the press — of healing arms, or any right secured equally to all the citizens of the United 
States, wherever they might be within the limits of their own country. 

They in vain seek for power in the Constitution — they affect to derive it from the Ordinance 
of '87. The Ordinance of '87 gave no pretence to Congress to assert any other right, than the 
right to prohibit slavery in the North-western Territory. By the terms of the Ordinance they 
were bound to interdict it there, but no where else. It was a contract between the United 
States, Virginia, and the inhabitants of that Territory, present and future, not to be violated 
by either party. It was made under the Articles of Confederation, and it is vain and useless 
now to iuquu-e whether rightfully and constitutionally made, or not. The present Constitu- 
tion ratified and confirmed it, liy ratifying and confirming all contracts or agreements binding 
on the Confederation. 

Tliis Ordinance, so far from authorizing Congress to make a new move on the svibject of 
slavery, beyond the lunits of that territory, impliedly forbids it. It says, in substance, 
'■ slavery being universally established among the States, we, the parties to the contract, have 
prohibited slavery there, and there only, leaving it established and confirmed elsewhere, until 
the separate States of the Union shall otherwise decree." If Congress were now to pass an 
act for the establishment of slavery in the North-west Territory, the people would most right- 
fully protest against it as a breach of faith— as violative of the present Constitution, and as 
violative of the Ordinance under the Confederation ; proof conclusive, I think, that, unless by 
contract between all the parties. Congress could not, even under the Confederation, pass an 
Ordinance, or any other act, interdicting slavery in the Territories. When, therefore. Congress 
subsequently undertook, of its own authority, by virtue of the Ordinance, to limit slavery 
elsewhere, it was guilty of a mere usurpation. 

Jn the Missouri case, Congress had not even the pretense of contiiict to excuse the usur- 
pation. If France had contracted with the United States, and with the consent of the inhabi- 
tants of Louisiana, that slayery or involuntary servitude should bo abolished forever within 
the limits of Louisiana, such portion of the treaty would have been merely void — Congress 
having no power, by the present Constitution, to touch the subject of slavery in any manner 
whatsoever, either by treaty or by legislation. But there was uo such contract made ; and Con- 
gress had no more right to prohibit slavery in any portion of Louisiana, than to aboUsh it 
where it already existed. Its silly contract Avith England, to unite in abolishing the slave 
trade, is not in virtue of any power which Congress has over slavery, but in virtue of tho 
power which it has over foreign ti'ade and commerce. But it is one thing for Congress to 
assert the power to prohibit slavery in Missouri, and another and very different thing for the 
jieople of the slave States to concede that power. The character of compromise does not alter 
the case. You cannot compromise a power or principle of the Constitution. If you could, it 
would soon bo a very different thing, both from what it is and from what it was intended to be. 
It was, in truth, a voluntary surrender, on your part, without tho shadow of a quid pro quo — 
not even a blackberi-y. Indeed, it seemed as if you had been whipped into it by the rope"s 
end, or cat o'nine-tails. Still, at last, it was a voluntary surrender. You bound yourselves by 
it ; and, as in the case of the Ordinance, it is vain now to be raising constitutional questions. 
Nevertheless, it is true, that you surrendered no more than \\hat you actually agreed at tho 
time to surrender, the prohibition of slavery north of latitude 36" 30', and within what was 
formerly the limits of Louisiana. Beyond that, (shameful and scandalous as the surrender 
Mas,) you surrendered nothing, nothing of territory, to be sure, but you surrendered the 
argument. The great argument was: " If we make a voluntary concession of what you 
have no right to claim, it will only afford you a pretext, in future, to ask more— to insist on 
the ell, because we had given the inch. You will not even promise not to ask for more, and 



* It wOl not be less a declaration of war against us, if we are simply treated as 
squatters, to be turned out at the point of the bayonet. If by voluntary associations, 50 or 
100,000 men had gone into California, Congress would Iiave had no remedy hut liy recourse to 
the army and navy. 



APPENDIX. XIX. 

wo ibrcsoo, ilistiuctly, tliat with ri's^ara to tbe t'uturo iicquisitioii of territory, either by pur- 
cliase or byconquest, this liuo of oG-30 will be regarded as equally surrendered — for, being a 
line, marking a boundary of climate, into which wc have not, and never will have, any induce- 
ment to carry our slave property, the argument, if it be good for any thing, Ih aa good for 
future as for present territory." By the by, although this may have been tl>o view taken of 
it at the tims, it has since turned out that, for all mining purposes, slave labor would be as 
applicable to countries north of 36-30, as south of it. African slavery had its origin in the 
necessity of substituting black for Indian servitude, for mining. So that, really, wben it was 
supposed we had only surrendered a right, we had in fact surrendered a substantial interest 
likewise. 

Now, the question is,, will you, having once, for the sake of preserving the Union, made a 
voluntary concession of rights and interests, be willing to make a like concession to preserve 
the same Union now ? I would not have done so then, nor would I do so, now ; but I am only 
one of the million. How far are we willing to go, and how much more are we willing to give 
up to preserve the Union ? It is known to you, that there are some who are prepared to give 
up everything. I trust there never will be found a majority for this. What then shall we 
do ? I say, let us begin and put oiir trust in a condition of full preparedness to meet the worst 
contingency, in defence of all our rights and interests. As we have most unwisely surrender- 
ed our birth-right for less than a mess of pottage — as we have surrendered, in the same man- 
ner, valuable interests — as, at the same time, we surrendered almost the only argument that 
ought to have proved available for their preservation, may we, myself not included, not again 
make more sacrifices by consenting to extend the same line indeiiuitely, on the single con- 
dition, that all countries South of it shall be opened to us forever, with adistinct understanding 
that not a man or a dollar woulil be supplied to any future wars, Imt with the full assurance, 
on their part, that we were to share equally in then- benefits as in their burthens ? So much 
might be yielded to avert the greatest of all evils— a civil war. But^ still, I am persuaded that 
these sacrifices would not, by our adversary, be considered cnoitgh, if not supported by an 
attitude and posture so palpably formidable us not to be mistaken. To bring about these 
ends, I fear a convention— more paper resolutions— I would prefer a general informal under- 
standing, each State engaging earnestly and heartily in the work of preparation, as if the 
result of a common sense of duty and safety. The States that are willing to co-operate, woulfX 
soon be known and distinguished from those who are unwilling ; and so you would be able to 
estimate your strength, and then, if it were deemed sufficient, a convention might follow, not 
for paper resolutions, but for the purpose of counseling as to the best modes of carrying into 
effect your already fixed and settled purpose. 

December 1, 18i9.— Two or three days after forwarding my first letter, I had written thus 
much, when I decided not to send it, but to await the action of the Convention of California. 
If the prescribed boundaries are finally adopted, giving the entire Pacific coast to tbe new State, 
and all the country north and south of 30-30 to the southern line of Oregon, besides, and 
Congressshould adopt the same, then I advise that you take the remedy as suggested in my 
first letter,or the expedient of an armed emigration of slave-holders into the territory south 
of 36-30, with a resolution to bold it forever as a slave country, or until eventually its popu- 
lation, as a State, shall determine otherwise. 

And now, as California itself has prepared the way for the problem to bo solved by Congress, 

I have no hesitation in relieving you from the injunction heretofore imposed ; and you are 

thus at liberty to make what use you please of my crude letters, with the single restriction, 

tiiat you must first believe that some public usefulness may follow. 

Very sincerely and respectfully, 

G. M. Troup. 



[The two remaining letters have been noticed in the fourteenth chapter of this work.] 

ViLbOSTA, Laukens Co., Ga., 29th October, 18.50. 
Dear Sir • It would have afforded me great pleasure to have been able to comply with your 
ve^relnableand patriotic request;but it is rendered impossible for the foUowmg reasons., 
which I trust will prove satisfactory to you and my other friends : 



XX. APPENDIX. 

1st. I am decidedly iucr^e to appearing in the public prints. 
2d. I have repeatcdlj-, of late, declined compliance with similar application;;. 
3d. With very great reluctance, I had consented to the publication of a letter addressed to 
a gentleman of Mobile, on the same subject, which I saw afterwards in the newspapers, and 
which contained my deliberate and unchangeable sentiments, both in regard to the grievance 
and the remedy — as to which, of course, I would add or subtract nothing. 

It is true that since the date of that letter, acts have been passed by Congress, which have 
been called a compromise of the agitated questions; but still my opinions remain the same, 
and it would be idle repetition and waste of words to offer you the same substance dressed in 
different language. 

Congress has merely consummated a scheme conceived and begun by the Kxccutive in fraud, 
falsehood and trickery, and has effectually excluded you from every square foot of territory 
acquired from Mexico, and 40,000 pquare miles taken from Texas, besides, as if they had enacted 
the Wilmot Proviso, word for word ; and they have done this without violating the letter of 
the Constitution— nor would they have forborne the Wilmot Proviso, word for word, had they 
not believed that the law of God and the law of Mexico had effectually done the same thing- 
without it. - 

Xow, if Congress had enacted Iho Wilmot Proviso, and had ivbolished slavery in the District, 
and the slave trade between the States, and had even made the first move to abolish slavery in 
the States, I could hayc advised nothing more nor less than I advised in that Mobile letter. 
I would have rejoiced if I had had the power to call you to arms, but oven in that case you 
would have had none. I therefore advised the arming of the Southern States, without delay— 
a good musket and bayonet in the hand of every man capable of using it, and good parks of 
artillery, well officered and well trained volunteers, &c., &e., in all of which you are deficient. 
I know of but one State, on this side of the Potomac, that is not so — it is South Carolina. If 
,S. C. shall unhappily resolve to secede alone, she will be able to light a good fight — if 
cloven down, she will fall with honor. If any one believes there can bo dissolution without 
the most bloody contests, he deceives himself; and he who is best armed is likely to be most 
successful. Tor dissolution, two things are necessary. 1st — The will — 2d. — The means, 
Carolina is the only State having the ^vill, and the only one having any degree of preparedness 
to carry that will into effect. In every other State there is neither the one nor the other. 
Sonie of the States arc, almost to a man, satisfied with what Congress has done — all the rest 
are divided. Thoir-Ecpresontativcs and Senators have divided ; with respect to Georgia, none 
can tell on which side a majority is. either for submission or resistance. I would consider it 
extremely unwise and imprudent to dissoKe, uuless a majority of the States of coterminous 
boundaries could be formed into a Confederacy sufficiently strong to resist all foreign aggres- 
sion. It would be exceedingly desirable that all the States having identical interests, should 
join in the same confederacy: but I -nould not wait for this if the enemy continued to force the 
separation. 

All remedies, short of force or conveutiunal agreement, I reject— every other remedy, ^^■hether 
of non-intercourse, or rcstrictivt^ duties, or discriminative taxes on trade or commerce, is 
unconstitutional, and, until wc are driven to the last alternative, I wish every unconstitutional 
movement to proceed from the North. I wish our people to bo constantly on the side of 
morality, good faith and the Constitution, until that alternative is offered. Tiolations of the 
Constitution admit of no degrees,* and I would abstain from following the example of the 
Xorth. Let her go on in the career of violation, until she has heaped so many coals of fire on 
her head, and then present to her the bayonet, with a good conscience, and with an energj- 
t hat will make lior, if not a friend, a better and a more honest neighbor. 

Nothing is more easy, if you will permit yourselves, than to be drawn into an experiment 
of remedies that are extra-constitutional. They exclude you from Territories which are a» 
much yours as theirs — may you not exclude Northern men from Territories which are 
exclusively yours ? Northern men exclude your property from California and the Territories 
— may not you exclude their property from the boundaries of Georgia? On a principle of 
retaliation, you would be justifiable ; but you would not bo justified by the Constitution. 
A voluntary non-intercourse would bo good, and might be remedial, but this would require a 

* The effects and consequences of different violations, may be very different ; but, whilst 
in the Union, every wilful liolation is criminal. 



.VPPENDIX. XXI. 

unanimity for which there is no hope — less than unanimity would defeat it. Discriminating 
taxes violate the Constitution, hecauso Congress have exclusive power to regulate commerce 
between the States ; and the regulation of commerce does not mean destruction, hut en- 
couragement. And now, sir, I have only to repeat, for the hundredth time, and for all that 
time unheeded, there is no remedy for our present grievance, but armed States, bidding de- 
fiance and presenting such array that the one party must withdraw from its unjust preten- 
.sions, or the other assert its rights of equality and independence. 'Whether continued 
aggression, resistance to or repeal of the Fugitive Act, or something worse, will rally the 
people of the South and bring them to think and feel and act like brothers, remains for the 
future to disclose. In the mean time, we have thrown ourselves upon a Convention, audit 
will become good citizens to abide its action. 

Having thus presented my general views in as few words as I could employ to make myself 
at all intelligible, I trust you will see in those few an additional reason why they should not 
bo published. They proclaim our weakness, by proclaiming our divisions, and thus encourag- 
ing the North to proceed in her course of aggression, which is what the enemies of Union de- 
sire and the friends of Union deplore. No State can act with safety in the direction of dissolu- 
tion, without a majority strong enough to expe^ the non-contents and drive them into the 
arms of the enemy. 

\'ery respectfully, dear Sir, 

(i. M.Ti.ofP. 
Dr. John G. Slappey, 

Xewton, Georgia. 



V.\i,nosT.\, July 4th, 1S.5.J. 

Dear Sir: You are quite welcome to do as you please with any thing of mine you may havu 
in possession, provided you think good may come of it. 

I have neither taste, inclination, nor spirits, for controversial politics ; but aui, notwithstand- 
ing, far from being indiflercnt to the welfare of our countrj'. If a word from me could 
sTibserve its interest, in any sense, it would not be wanting. We see with ditlcrent eyes, or I 
would be amazed at the opposition to the present administration, especially in the Southern 
country.* The present is, in truth, the least exceptionable of all the administrations we have 
(^ver had, Gen. Wasliingtou's, Mr. Jefferson's and Mr. Polk's not excepted. People seem to be 
opposed to it because there is really nothing to find fault with. The Southern people are 
bound by honor, gratitude and patriotism, to sustain it with all their might. 

f Catholic Church and foreign emigralion are mere pretenses— the administration has nothing 
to do with either. The first has existed at all times, without complaint ; the second has not only 
existed, but has been almost uniformly encouraged by people and government ; and now a 
party is formed to destroy the administration because it will not destroy the Roman Catholics 
and put down the foreigners. This is not to he believed. The true grounds of opposition are : 

1st. The very small number of offices at the disposal of the President, when compared with 
the very gi-eat number of those who seek them. 2nd. The faithful and unfaltering integrity 
with which the public treasure is guarded against the thieves who prowl, by night and by 
day, to break iu and steal; and^rd. The inflexible courage with which the President, in de- 
fending the Constitution, defends the dearest rights and most sacred interest of the South. 
The most formidable power against the administration, is the party occupying the latter ground; 
and what a spectacle is here presented for the Southern country! Mr. Pierce and Mr. Hale, 

'■' Elected by a vast majority of his countrymen, in a manner most honorable to himself, he 
is threatened with overthrow by a majority almost as formidable, for, (as I think,) not even 
plausible reasons. [The reader will readily understand the allusion here to be to President 
Pierce.— Ed.] 

t This Church is more innocent now, in the eyes of all Protestant sects, than it has been 
before for two hundred yeai-s ; and there is uot beneath the sun a finer people than the people 
of Maryland, who are made to fall under the common proscription. 



XXII. APPENDIX. 

both from New llainpshirc— the one an houcst man; the other a higot, fanatic and abolition- 
ist! What a contrast ! What effulgence ! Wliat blaclmess! And yet, there are Southern 
men, acting with the latter, to bumble and prostrate tlie former, and with scarcely any better 
pretext than tliat the former had appointed to two conspicuous offices, two prominent men, 
one failing in liis duty, and the other doing his with honor and advantage to tlie country. 
Mistalven and dtluded men ! Our very safety depending on union among ourselves, they 
would sow discord and division. Our higliest interests depending on the veto, they wonld take 
the veto from Mr. Pierce to bestow it on Mr. Hale, or Mr. Anybody. Such men seek to re- 
store the administration of the past, when peculation and plunder and swindling were the order 
of,the day in every administrative department, and when the only security of the public 
against rapine and sjioliation, was the exhaustion ajid beggary of the treasury. 
A'ery respectfully, dear Sir, 

G. M. Troup. 
Dr. John G. Slappey, 

Newton, Georgia. 
P. S. The President has had nothing to do with the disgraceful bidding for the Presidency, 
going on for some time in the Senate of the U., S., where the public lands and the public 
offices have been offered to any or every body wlio had a vote to give, and any oi- every body 
might be qualified to vote. 






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